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Dinesh

Dinesh club

Posted: 17 Nov 2021

Taken: 16 Nov 2021

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Text from •
A Natural History of Human Thinking •
Author •
Michael Tomasello •

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As one dramatic example in the contemporary world, we may point to what are arguably the most abstract and complex forms of human thinking, that is, those involved in Western science and mathematics. The point here is that those forms of thinking are simply not possible without special forms of socially constructed conventions, namely, those in written forms, that developed over historical time in Western culture. This point is stressed especially by Peirce (1931-1958) and in summarized in the classic text of modern logic by Lewis and Langford: “Had it not been for the adoption of the new and more versatile idographic symbols, many branches of mathematics could never hae been developed because no human mind could grasp the essence of their oprations in terms of the phonograms of ordinary language.” Many scholars of literacy would also argue that written language makes certain forms of reasoning, if not possible, at least more accessible (Olson, 1994). Writing also greatly facilitates metalinguistic thinking and the possibility to analyze, criticize, and evaluate our own linguistic communication, as well as that of others. Pictures and other graphic symbols used as communicative devices are collective representations that contribute to the process in important ways as well.

These modern cultures that have created active communities of scientists, mathematicians, linguistics, and other scholars are pretty much unthinkable without written language, written mathematical numerals and operations, and other forms of visually based and semipermanent symbols. Cultures that have not created and do not currently possess any of these kinds of graphic symbols cannot currently participate in these activities. This demonstrates quite clearly that many of the most complex and sophisticated human cognitive processes are indeed culturally and historically constructed. It also opens the possibility that some other human cngnitive achievements are a kind of co-evolutionary mixture. Our own view would be that many of the complexities of human language are of this nature; built on universal cognitive processes but with culturally constructed concrete manifestations. ~ Page 142

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