What do you think?
Thoughts, yes. Please keep in mind that thoughts are not necessarily in the form of a voice, even in humans.
Not even all humans have that little voice.
Are you able to visualize? I have an inner monologue but no ability to visualize
I can visualize and have an inner monologue, I was just pointing out that not everyone does.
In a way that scares me, but it would explain how we have so many different ways of looking at life.
Dogs dream, and dreams are just thoughts.
Why would anyone think that thought is unique to humans? Seems absurd to a frightening degree.
The voice in my head requires complex language and symbolism. I don’t doubt that they’re capable of thought, just like Helen Keller was capable of thought before having language, but I doubt that it’s like the “little voice” in my head.
Not sure about thoughts, but cats are interesting in their level of committment to their intent when they “decide” they want to do something. They are laser-focused and its hard to actually meaningfully distract them from the execution once the order’s been placed haha.
Watch them sometime. Cat.exe are very deiberate little critters. It reminds me of when you hit the share sheet on iOS but you change your mind and try desperately to navigate away from it popping up or hoping you can cancel out the instruction but nope. Its coming
My cat has thoughts. They’re usually “today I feel like biting my owner because it’s a load of fun”
Not everyone has a voice in their head. Do you have a cat? Cats have thoughts. Unfortunately that thought is sometimes, “eff you, human!”
What do you mean about “not everyone has a voice in their head”? I have one… I would like to research more about this topic.
What do you mean about “not everyone has a voice in their head”?
Well, what do you think it means?
I believe it would be interesting to talk about this with someone wo inner monologue.
I am curious how many people don’t have an inner monologue, but there are a few articles on the subject. Here’s one at random.>
Thx for the info…
There are also people who are unable to see images in their mind. In case you want to go further down the rabbit hole.
Do you know if it’s some kind of mental illness? I mean some kind of human abnormality, or do you believe there are a lot of people like that?
Humans are animals.
True though that may be, there’s no benefit to mentioning that in this situation.
They don’t have language, so they can’t have the internal dialogue.
But can they have imagination? Since many animals have dreams, then why not?
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My dog’s would often woof and move their paws on their dreams.
I think that it’s on a sliding scale. Some animals clearly have some kind of inner thought process, and clearly have their own personalities. Others not as much. I know that with cats, for instance, there are tools you can use that allow cats to communicate certain concepts to people, stings of buttons that are each linked to a discrete word. Cats can learn to string button presses together to ‘say’ things to their keepers. (Apparently the most common thing they ask for is clean water, so clean your cat’s water daily.) That may not be evidence of “thought” in the way that you’re thinking about it, but there’s clearly some form of cognition going on there.
clean water
I used to have a cat who did this. He would lead me to the bathroom, jump into the tub, and then wait patiently until I turned on the bath faucet – just a trickle!
No, but that is because they don’t have language.
That said, plenty of humans do not have a voiced internal experience. The lack of language does not imply a lack of cognition. I would expect that the brain of a closely related organism, say a chimp, would have many similar experiences generated by the same stimuli. Would they experience green like I experience green? I can’t even say that about a person sitting next to me, but they probably have an equivalent experience.
That said, if we had a way of communicating could we reach agreed terms? I can do that with my cat, so I would think he has an understanding of me and my behaviours along with what tends to happen when I do certain things like clap then shake my hands at the end of a treat session. He knows there are no more treats, he associates that with my hands clapping and shaking, so we communicate. Does he have a voice in his head describing it? Probably not. Does he have Meows? Again, probably not, but he would have a sense and memories of previous times.
they don’t have language
Have you never seen a dog wag their tail or play bow?
Have you never seen a squirrel twitching their tail at another squirrel who’s encroached on their territory?
Have you never encountered any media about whale songs?
All kinds of animals have all kinds of language.
I meant to say language in the linguistics sense, a series of abstract items which can be arranged to convey arbitrary meaning. For example, a dog barking can be a threat display, a warning, playful, sad, afraid, and so on. But can you use barking to create grammar? With grammar you could have labels for items in the world and use various barks to refer to them, make requests, ask questions, and so on. Some types of animals have warning calls that are specific to types of predators, for example an eagle call or a leopard call. Leopards require different responses than eagles so the distinction is very useful and helps others to respond. This is not quite language but is definitely a step in the right direction.
So yes, you are correct, lots of animals can communicate things to each other, but it is not the same as language like what humans have. Could we find an animal that does have language? Or something very close? Sure, but we haven’t shown that yet. Maybe we should focus on giving other animals a chance to develop before we wipe them all out.
but it is not the same as language like what humans have
And it doesn’t have to be. In fact this sort of thinking can limit how we learn about other animals.
Dogs don’t pass the mirror test for self awareness like some corvids and a few other animals do. But dogs don’t experience each other primarily through vision, scent is much more their main sense. So is that even a valid test for canid self awareness?
Animals have thoughts, that is clear as day.
Inner Monolog? In a way. But not like us because they don’t speak English motherfucker.
But it’s possible to have thoughs if you don’t have inner monologue?
Wait, you have a little voice in your head??
Yeah you know like the devil and the angel of the cartoons…
One of My strongest memories is watching a documentary where they claimed dogs don’t dream, and my dogs directly in front of the TV making little sleep barks and moving legs deep into some dream.
Let’s be honest we are animals and the rest aren’t all that far behind us.
Yeah I understand but I’m talking about an inner monologue, not about dreaming…
Are we even sure everyone has one of those? Not everyone has a mind’s eye.
Not everyone has an inner monologue
What’s driving me wild about these claims is I DON’T KNOW WHAT THE FUCK PEOPLE EVEN MEAN with “inner monologue”. And none of those stupid articles seems to bother to first and foremost try to define what the fuck they are writing about. A definition of the word…
It’s like talking to yourself, but not vocalizing it. At least that’s how I understand it
I still don’t know whether that means my absolutely everyday way to think the words I am typing right now, or if some people can actually hear their “inner voice” like in a movie voiceover when the protagonists thoughts are narrated in the protagonist’s voice. Or do people have a “dialogue” in their heads? I mean that never occurred to me because at least that part of "mono"logue is clear…
Pretty much the inner voice thing. Like you are talking yourself through what you are doing, commenting internally on what you see and stuff.
