Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T16:02:09.899Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Internalizing communication

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 August 2003

Gerard O'Brien
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia 5005 gerard.obrien@adelaide.edu.aujon.opie@adelaide.edu.au http://www.arts.adelaide.edu.au/philosophy/gobrien.htm http://www.arts.adelaide.edu.au/philosophy/jopie.htm
Jon Opie
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia 5005 gerard.obrien@adelaide.edu.aujon.opie@adelaide.edu.au http://www.arts.adelaide.edu.au/philosophy/gobrien.htm http://www.arts.adelaide.edu.au/philosophy/jopie.htm

Abstract

Carruthers presents evidence concerning the cross-modular integration of information in human subjects which appears to support the “cognitive conception of language.” According to this conception, language is not just a means of communication, but also a representational medium of thought. However, Carruthers overlooks the possibility that language, in both its communicative and cognitive roles, is a nonrepresentational system of conventional signals – that words are not a medium we think in, but a tool we think with. The evidence he cites is equivocal when it comes to choosing between the cognitive conception and this radical communicative conception of language.

Type
Brief Report
Copyright
© 2002 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)