Do We Think in Images or Words?

Dear dfm,

Go raibh maith agat for the extraordinary tutoring lesson on Aristotle. I remember I had the same wooly reaction to Confessio (where it was all Greek...sorry, bad pun) where I was sliding all over the place. I had no context by which to store the info.

Pennies were dropping right and left--a veritable shower. The Joycian Aha! where I understood why some of my writings don't work (episodic, w/o integral structure), why other writings make me so mad--that feeling of beiing "had." 

Learning was pleasurable indeed but my head was reeling. Another wing of rooms were added to my brain. Hopefully it isn't the Winchester Mystery House--though after going afterwards to that school behind bars (haven or prison?) in Hunter's Point had me reeling for entirely different reasons. Pity & fear. Will art save lives or be a catharsis for these kids? Luckily it's 3rd-5th grades. A toxic dump both metaphorically & physically. Even East Oakland isn't this bad.

Another wooly query: Last night we spent the evening arguing over what thought is. Does thought exist without words? I maintained that words are the vehicle by which we transmit ideas as I tend to think in images first (metaphoric?), then translate thoughts into words. This may be a quirk of artists & dyslexics--as I've asked other artists the same question. Or maybe we don't all experience thought processes the same way. My example: mammals can think and even problem-solve—albeit limited in scope. I assume they do this without words.

What, then, is thinking, cognition, or even language? Is thought different than thinking? Can one have thoughts or hypothetically speaking, a language without words? A catch-phrase on measuring "visual literacy" suggests that we need to translate images into words. 

Yet we understand images without words. Example: Singer dreamt of two swords with eyes at their tips, and thus invented the sewing machine. Kepler dreamt of ourobouros, a ring opening & closing and solved the problem of the structure of benzine rings. Einstein was reputed to have expereinced most of his ideas either visually or metaphorically in his famous thought experiments. Following the progress of a ripple of light downriver, or light on a dust mote led to the idea of the speed of light and the Theory of Relativity. Is this not Thought without words? Or am I mixing apples with oranges?

Yours in a conundrum,

Maureen

if you're free, Sat night, Neil's in a playreading at the Exit Theatre. Gemma Whelan (Co Leish) teaches film at Mills. A bit Absurdist. (info below).

Saturday February 23, 7pm:

A staged reading of "Low in the Dark" by Marina Carr with Gemma Whelan, MaryAnn Casey, Stephanie Lynch, Neil O'Neill, and John Ficcara. Directed by Alison Tassie. Tickets are 'pay what you can'.
8.30pm: "The Bald Soprano" by Eugene Ionesco performed by Ireland's Asylum Theatre Company.
The Exit is at 156 Eddy St, San Francisco (between Mason and Taylor)