> My sense is that humans--because we are a social/collective
> creature--have a need to establish the existence of common
> perceptions. Language is one method of doing that, although language
> can be used for other purposes as well.
Hi Dale,
my hunch is that the common perception already exists, it is part of
the activity, which we not only produce but also reproduce in each
perceptive act. We do not have to establish common perceptions--there
is no way that monads can come to common perception, I think Hegel and
Marx realized that--but we have to bring our perceptions into alignment
when it turns out that the particulars we currently realize differ. The
differences are the result of the inner contradiction emerging out of
our different material bodies that concretely realize collective
consciousness, and because of these different bodies, can do so in
differing ways.
Sound production is only one way of aligning others. . . in fact, as my
study of scientists in a laboratory showed, sound production may not
be at all necessary and many other forms of communication like pointing
are simply watching what is going on is sufficient evidence not only
for knowing what is going on but also for knowing that the OTHERS know
what is going on.
Cheers,
Michael
PS: The study I am referring to is this:
Roth, W.-M. (2004). Perceptual gestalts in workplace communication.
Journal of Pragmatics, 36(6), 1037–1069.
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