Inquire about purchasing the book | Table of Contents | Annotated Bibliography | Class on Nature of Mind
These are excerpts and elaborations from my book "The Nature of Consciousness"
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Tools The British psychologist
Richard Gregoryhas shown how language is but one particular type of
"tool". The human race, in general, is capable of making and using
tools, and language happens to be one of them. Gregoryclaims that "tools are
extensions of the limbs, the senses and mind." The fundamental difference
between humans and apes is not in the (very small) anatomical differences but
in language and tools. Man is both a tool-user and a tool-maker. Gregoryshows that there are
"hand" tools (such as level, pick, axe, wheel, etc) and
"mind" tools, which help measuring, calculating and thinking (such as
language, writing, counting, computers, clocks). Tools are extensions of the
body. They help us perform actions that would be difficult for our arms and
legs. Tools are also extensions of the mind. Writing extended our memory. We
can make a note of something. So do photographs and recordings. This book
extends my mind. It also extends your mind. Tools like books create a shared
mind. Gregoryqualifies information as
"potential intelligence" and behavior as "kinetic
intelligence". Tools increase intelligence as they enable a new class of
behavior. A tool "confers" intelligence to a user, meaning that it
turns some potential intelligence into kinetic intelligence. A person with a tool is a
person with a potential intelligence to perform an action that without the tool
would not be possible (or much more difficult). Behavior is often just using
that tool to perform that action. It may appear that intelligence is in your
action, but, actually, intelligence is in the tool, not in your action. Or,
better, they are two different types of intelligence. And words are just one
particular type of tool. There is also a physical
connection in our body between language and tool usage: the same hemisphere
controls them both. Back to the beginning of the chapter "The History of Language: Why We Speak" | Back to the index of all chapters |
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