Re: Consciousness and language

Mikhail Lavrentiev:
> I am
> curious about relationships between language and
> thought, in particular connections between existence of
> first and second person in the language and the
> existence of conscious mind.

The work of Lev Semenovich Vygotsky touches on this question.
He found that children gradually learn to internalize speech
as they develop self-consciousness.   In a middle stage of
this process, at about 5 years old, they exhibit Egocentric
speech, talking to themselves and telling themselves what to
do.  Mimicking the words of others, they may describe
themselves in the third person.  Eventually children learn to
think silently, habitually using words without saying them
aloud.

> Now, consciousness as I understand it is primarily an
> ability of a person to differentiate itself from the
> rest of the world, to divide the world into "I" and
> "Non-I".

The word "consciousness" has many meanings.  I think you
refer to what some call "self-consciousness", and to what
Vygotsky did study as a process of socialization.


Harland Harrison