While these special characteristics of man are inseparable from his
social life, they also stand in strong relation to each other. These
characteristics have not been developed singly, but all have progressed
in common. That thought and language can exist and develop only in
common is known to everyone who has but tried to think of the nature
of his own thoughts. When we think or consider, we, in fact, talk
to ourselves; we observe then that it is impossible for us to think
clearly without using words. Where we do not think with words our
thoughts remain indistinct and we can not combine the various thoughts.
Every one can realize this from his own experience. This is because
so-called abstract reason is perceptive thought and can take place only
by means of perceptions. Perceptions we can designate and hold only by
means of names. Every attempt to broaden our minds, every attempt to
advance our knowledge must begin by distinguishing and classifying by
means of names or by giving to the old ones a more precise meaning.
Language is the body of the mind, the material by which all human
science can be built up.
The difference between the human mind and the animal mind was very
aptly shown by Schopenhauer. This citation is quoted by Kautsky in
his “Ethics and the Materialist Conception of History” (pages 139–40
English Translation). The animal’s actions are dependent upon visual
motives, it is only by these that it sees, hears or observes in any
other way. We can always tell what induced the animal to do this or the
other act, for we, too, can see it if we look. With man, however, it is
entirely different. We can not foretell what he will do, for we do not
know the motives that induce him to act; they are thoughts in his head.
Man considers, and in so doing, all his knowledge, the result of former
experience, comes into play, and it is then that he decides how to act.
The acts of an animal depend upon immediate impression, while those of
man depend upon abstract conceptions, upon his thinking and perceiving.
Man is at the same time influenced by finer invisible motives. Thus
all his movements bear the impress of being guided by principles and
intentions which give them the appearance of independence and obviously
distinguishes them from those of animals.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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