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Do nonlinguistic creatures deploy mental symbols for logical connectives in reasoning?
1Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA scarey@wjh.harvard.eduhttps://www.harvardlds.org/our-labs/carey-lab/susan-carey/.
The Behavioral and Brain Sciences
|September 28, 2023
Summary
This study challenges the idea that nonlinguistic thought possesses all features of a language-of-thought (LoT). Evidence does not support nonlinguistic deductive reasoning, suggesting animals and young children likely do not make logical inferences.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Science
- Philosophy of Mind
- Linguistics
Background:
- Some nonlinguistic representational systems exhibit certain features of a language-of-thought (LoT).
- Quilty-Dunn et al. proposed that all six LoT features co-occur homeostatically in nonlinguistic thought.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the conjecture that all six features of a language-of-thought (LoT) are present in nonlinguistic thought.
- To investigate the existence of nonlinguistic deductive reasoning, specifically involving the disjunctive syllogism.
Main Methods:
- Critical review of existing evidence regarding nonlinguistic reasoning capabilities.
- Philosophical argumentation analyzing the criteria for logical inference.
Main Results:
- There is a lack of compelling evidence for nonlinguistic deductive reasoning, particularly with the disjunctive syllogism.
- The study suggests that logical inferences are unlikely in animals and prelinguistic children.
Conclusions:
- The strong conjecture of homeostatic co-occurrence of all LoT features in nonlinguistic thought is not supported by current evidence.
- Nonlinguistic thought likely does not encompass the full set of features characteristic of a language-of-thought, especially logical inference.
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