A thought on thoughts

[KevinM1]

This feels like the natural conclusion to today's trend

[brewer]

Sorry, lost in neurotransmission.

[KevinM1]

[Bob Kelso]

Does everyone here think in speech? Like a narrating inner monologue?

I’ve heard some people say that they don’t. They claim their inner landscape is silent (speech wise) and they process through images and feelings alone. I find that interesting.

[Fireball]

Does everyone here think in speech? Like a narrating inner monologue?

I’ve heard some people say that they don’t. They claim their inner landscape is silent (speech wise) and they process through images and feelings alone. I find that interesting.

In general, yes, I do. But there are times, such as when I'm working through some physical or mathematical problem, that I just see the symbols and mentally manipulate them. I guess that that is some sort of "inner monologue" but it doesn't really seem like it (in terms of it being in the English language). I've also noticed that when I'm working a problem like that and have a radio playing in the background, I don't notice that it is even playing until I've reached a solution. Until that time, I am completely oblivious to what is going on around me. When I was still working, I could do the same thing while designing something.

[chimp3]

My thoughts lead me to thoughts which keep me awake at night. My thoughts also allow me to make a living during the daytime.

[Angrboda]

When I did math when I was younger, it was without any explicit thinking. One step would just follow the next like something physical.

I'm told that people without language still imagine God, so I imagine it's more common than not. It's a valid question whether we think in words or instead in some sort of mentalese. I suspect more the latter, except when we're mentally rehearsing for some future encounter, and then it's still like math, we fumble towards our thoughts without prior deliberation. We may at times think verbally, but verbalism itself isn't visible; it's as intuitive and unbidden as anything else silent. We're forced to simply depend on our ability to form good thoughts based on talent and intelligence. We can't "think our way" to good thinking.

Things like this always make me wonder what the thought process of people who don't manage to think successfully is like and if it differs any from that of more successful thinking from the perspective of the thinker. We urge people to become critical thinkers, but what do we do if our ability to think about our thinking is defective? How do we figure out that it is defective in the first place? I think the conventional answer is to depend upon external validation of our ability to think, but is someone who doesn't think well going to appeal to that rather than internal evidence, such as their beliefs about how successful they have been in the past, which are themselves based on faulty information? I guess I'm wondering if you can fix stupid. Probably a futile goal, but worth considering.