Without Lifting A Finger



Though he emphasizes an inter-relationship between language development and thought, he also posits a kind of mentalese (an inner speech that in its mature form would be unintelligible to anyone except the thinker), and, at least according to the article in Wiki, would not say that thinking cannot take place without language. Language helps to mediate thought and develop it to a higher level of sophistication. Also, according to Wiki: "Some critics say Vygotsky overemphasized the role of language in thinking." [  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lev_Vygotsky ] * This paper would seem to except the idea that thought is already present. Language is only a tool. OK, a big tool.  [From "Lev S. Vygotsky" by Ivan Ivic: http://www.ibe.unesco.org/fileadmin/user_upload/archive/publications/ThinkersPdf/vygotske.pdf ]

More "uncertainty" re Thought precedes Language or vice versa. The two sides: Some philosophers have argued that our public language is our mental language, that a person who speaks English thinks in English. Others contend that people who do not know a public language (e.g. babies, aphasics ) can think, and that therefore some form of mentalese must be present innately. [From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_of_thought  ] * From the previously cited "Children think before they speak" by Paul Bloom: