Mental Evolution in Man: Origin of Human FacultyRomanes, George John
Science
Mental Evolution in Man: Origin of Human Faculty
Romanes, George John
Evolution; Psychology, Comparative
before we are able to frame the propositions needed to express that
answer. Or, while writing an essay, how often does one feel, so to
speak, that a certain truth stands to be stated, although it is a truth
which we cannot immediately put into words. We know, in a general way,
that a truth is _there_, but we cannot supply the vehicle which is to
bring it _here_; and it is not until we have tried many devices, each
of which involve long trains of sequent propositions, that we begin
to find the satisfaction of rendering explicit in language what was
previously implicit in thought. Again, in playing a game of chess we
require to take cognizance of many and complex relations, actual and
contingent; so that to play the game as it deserves to be played, we
must make a heavy demand on our powers of abstract thinking. Yet in
doing this we do not require to preach a silent monologue as to all
that we might do, and all that may be done by our opponent. Lastly, to
give only one other illustration, in some forms of aphasia the patient
has lost every trace of verbal memory, and yet his faculties of thought
for all the practical purposes of life are not materially impaired.
On the whole, therefore, I conclude that, although language is a
needful condition to the _original construction_ of conceptional
thought, when once the building has been completed, the scaffolding
may be withdrawn, and yet leave the edifice as stable as before. In
this way familiar concepts become, as it were, degraded into recepts,
but recepts of a degree of complexity and organization which would not
have been possible but for their conceptional parentage. With Geiger we
may say, “So ist denn überall die Sprache primar, der Begriff entsteht
durch das Wort.”[56] Yet this does not hinder that with Friedrich
Müller we should add, “Sprechen ist nicht Denken, sondern es ist nur
Ausdruck des Denkens.”[57]
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