What was thinking like for cavemen before language was developed?
 

Okay, it's obvious they must have thought in pictures. So when they got hungry they saw food. But, otherwise, what did they think about when they didn't need anything in particular? Did their minds go blank? Is there a picture for, "what should I do now?"

And what about deep thoughts? Could they have any deep thoughts without language? Like, "why do I exist?.....what is my purpose in life?" I don't think you can ask those questions with pictures.

Imagine if a caveman or cavewoman had a preteen son or daughter: They wouldn't be able to have....you know......"the talk". What then? Maybe they just gave them the "grunt".

If they didn't have a word for "yesterday" or "tomorrow", what did they have? How can you think of tomorrow in pictures? Would they be able to plan ahead in pictures?

I'm sure you will tell me about it, those of you who think in pictures, assuming you can find the words to explain it. ;)

What was it like to not have any words, only pictures for thoughts.

I wonder how Tourette Syndrome manifested back then.

Should I feel offended about this thread? Grunt! Grunt! Scratch head!

Z

It would seem logical that cavemen didn't ever associate what they did as a result of thinking but out of instinct same as animals. It would seem that as language developed , even the crudest ,so did thinking.

Sorry, but I wouldn't know. It was too long ago for me to remember. :shocked:

If you ever get a chance to see it, watch the movie "Quest for Fire". No words were spoken in the entire move.

Read the Trilogy "Clan of the Cave Bear" by Jean Auel.

Everyone thinks in pictures...language or not.

Think about an elephant....do you see the word or the picture of an elephant?

Your photographic memory at work...

i would imagine they thought pretty much the way that dogs think. We know that dogs dream (O, O, I''m chasing a rabbit) and otherwise "think" in pictures. i.e, there's my food bowl, there's my master, there's someone I've never seen before, there's a female who's in heat. Without language there's no history of the past, and there's no anticipation of the future. Living in the moment, for sure.

I imagine, as none of us can ever really know, that all living creatures think just fine, with or without language. Most language is, after all, unspoken. If you've ever watched an ant colony, they have amazing communication, with evident logic, strategy, and teamwork. Nature demonstrates this everywhere. I'm not at all sure that humans are the brightest among us.

Food for deep thought. Parker. I know I am glad YOU have language, you always use it well.

Any physical anthropologist will tell you the concept of an after life goes back in human history further than first imagined in accordance with brain size.
Any attempt to coordinate such concepts as "yesterday or tomorrow" with brain size is very difficult.

What is known is that once the animal was killed and cooked and the belly was full the first thoughts were of.......FOOTBALL!!!

...ARE YA READY???

Frankly, other species communicate better or more accurately more honestly than humans. Humans have the extraordinary ability to act with an intention but say something that is totally opposite. And oddly, humans tend to listen to the words more than the actions.

Yes, odd indeed.

There were six books not three
Clan of cave bear
Valley of horses
Plains of passage
Mammoth hunters
Shelters of stone
Can.t remember other one

[QUOTE=Villages PL;822187]Okay, it's obvious they must have thought in pictures. So when they got hungry they saw food. But, otherwise, what did they think about when they didn't need anything in particular? Did their minds go blank? Is there a picture for, "what should I do now?"

And what about deep thoughts? Could they have any deep thoughts without language? Like, "why do I exist?.....what is my purpose in life?" I don't think you can ask those questions with pictures.

Imagine if a caveman or cavewoman had a preteen son or daughter: They wouldn't be able to have....you know......"the talk". What then? Maybe they just gave them the "grunt".

If they didn't have a word for "yesterday" or "tomorrow", what did they have? How can you think of tomorrow in pictures? Would they be able to plan ahead in pictures?

I'm sure you will tell me about it, those of you who think in pictures, assuming you can find the words to explain it. ;)

What was it like to not have any words, only pictures for thoughts.[/QUOTE

Not all language is verbal. Animals communicate by dancing and wiggling like bees.some through pheromones like ants and some by colorful displays like birds and lizards. Apes can be taught to communicate with sign language and they compose independent thoughts and desires. Some language was taught through geometric shapes to birds and mammals. Past is remembered by physical responses like in operatant conditioning. If a dog gets hit for chewing something and then stops doing it he has learned and remembers the punishment
There are many books on this subject. Cavemen are thought to have communicated by gestures before speech developed..
They had the brain capacity for communication. They had to have the capacity to remember the past In order to evolve to the future.

I know they didn't think about interest rates, identity theft, modem speed, and what the Fed might do. Not all bad!

When bees dance and wiggle to commumicate, does that represent thought or instinct? Ditto for ants, birds and lizards. It's not likely that they think as we do. Apes can be taught to communicate with sign language on a rudimentary level, but the question is the same for them as it is for humans: What was it like for them before they learned it?

Dogs learn from "operant conditioning" but, again, it's very rudimentary? They tend to make associations, in my opinion, and it's not always very effective. When I lived on a dairy farm, my brother taught our dog not to drink milk out of a dairy milk-pail. Many years later, when we no longer had a dairy farm, I tried to give the dog water from a pail and the dog wouln't drink. It didn't have any idea what the original lesson was about.

Perhaps cavemen were, at one time, on the same level as apes and dogs. They would have been very limited in their ability to think and plan ahead. If there were any Einsteins among them, they wouldn't have been able to share their thoughts with the others.