Rishon Rishon

Language is a tool

In my last post I stated without elaboration that language is a tool. In my opinion, this is a very deep and meaningful statement, because I think that language is a tool much like any other tool human beings use. Proficiency with language is acquired the same way that proficiency with all tools is acquired. For example, when I ride a bicycle, I don't think about it at all – I only think about where I want to go, and somehow I go there. The mechanics of riding a bicycle are very complex, but somehow we learn them without knowing what, exactly, they are. The same goes for language.

Let's take another example: musical instruments. I play (not very well) guitar, harmonica, and piano. I can also whistle and sing. I can produce the same melody by any of these methods, but the physical motions that each one involves are radically different. However, anyone who can carry a tune can learn to play an instrument, because we humans have a built-in ability to use tools. Singing means that you can use your voice to reproduce the tune in your head. When you play an instrument, you do the same thing, but with a different tool. All you have to do is learn a different set of musical transformations to go from the tune in your head to the instrument you play, instead of your voice.

One more example: mathematics. Mathematical symbols are a tool that we use to express mathematical thoughts. The key reason why most people feel that math is a foreign language to them is that, well, it is. Most people never manage to internalize mathematical symbols to the extent that they become an intuitive language. They may know what the different symbols mean, but when they see a mathematical expression they have to figure it out, the way you would figure out an expression in a foreign language. In order to be able to use math productively, you have to become fluent in the language, i.e. to use its symbols intuitively to express what you really want to say, without thinking about the symbols themselves.

And this brings me to the nature of thought. There are two kinds of thought – rational thought, and what I'll call, for lack of a better term, intuitive thought. Rational thought is the kind of thought that we're consciously aware of, but intuitive thought is much more powerful. This is the kind of thought that we use to produce well-formed speech, to ride a bicycle, and to play an instrument – without necessarily knowing how we do it. The goal of all learning should be to make knowledge intuitive, for once we do that, we have acquired a new tool that our rational thought processes can apply to higher levels of thought.

UPDATE: Oops. I thought I said language is a tool. I guess I thought it, but didn’t say it.