Rishon Rishon

Representations of Thought

It seems that Steven Den Beste has become the Elvis of the blogosphere. Rumor has it that he has passed on to a better blogosphere (some say it’s a mythical paradise called, “Chisumatic”), but sightings of him in this blogosphere still seem common. I, for one, believe them to be real! Some philanthropic blogger should do us a favor, and start a blog of Steven Den Beste sightings, perhaps calling it: Den Beste Lives!

My most recent sighting is at Amaravati (my first sighting was on Daily Pundit), where he graced us with his thoughts about thought, and language. No doubt wisdom from the next blogosphere.

I must respectfully build on this wisdom. I think he’s half right, in that he gets all the right concepts down, but I think he doesn’t correctly specify their relationship to each other. He correctly points out that it is a fallacy that people necessarily think in words:

There are a number of problems with that. For one thing, there is a substantial minority of people for whom the subjective experience of thought is fundamentally visual and image oriented, rather than word oriented.

I would like to propose a different organization. I propose to divide up the concept of thinking into two very different acts, which for lack of better terms I will call: imagination and analysis. Imagination is the process of coming up with new thoughts, while analysis is the process of verifying their truth or utility. Thus words and pictures are both tools for analysis. And indeed, the right vocabulary, whether verbal or pictorial, does help in this process. I very much agree with the aphorism, attributed to Socrates, “The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.” So often, a poorly defined terminology leads to muddled thought. Just look at what passes for political analysis today. How did I begin this paragraph? By defining my terms!

Imagination, on the other hand, is neither verbal nor pictorial. Indeed, it is inexpressible. How can we express a thought before it is thought? And after it is thought, it can no longer be imagined, only analyzed. Imagination is the most remarkable thing in the world. Though my profession demands it on a daily basis, I have never ceased to be amazed at it. Where do these thoughts come from? Surely they are not random; in fact I myself have had some success at directing them. But I have only a vague idea how I do it.

One thing I do know: A clear expression of the problem, whether in words or in pictures, is one of the keys to imagining its solution.

Posted by David Boxenhorn at October 10, 2004 04:26 PM