Inner speech* seems to be an important part of System 2 thinking. It is a way of walking through the consequences of actions, a way to bring reason to bear against temptation. Gesturing to the careening inner monologues of the novels of James Joyce, Daniel Dennett has called the outcome of this wiring-in of speech a ‘Joycean machine’ in our heads. But how could something as mundane as an effernce copy system give rise to something so powerful? The mere existence of bits of language floating about inside us ought to have so many consequences.
Inner speech, and the sketches and shapes that inner language tangles with, having huge effects on subjective experience. Any ordinary human has at his or her disposal a field for the performance of countless invisible actions. The echoes and commentary, the chatter and cajoling, are as vivid as anything in our inner lives. You can be sitting motionless, watching an unchanging scene, and your mind can be alive with this stuff, teeming with it in a great jumble. Inner speech is so subjectively prominent, for many people that it can be overwhelming, the endless chatter fo something people use meditation to get away from. ~ 149
Loading
1 comment
Dinesh said:
Inner speech, and the sketches and shapes that inner language tangles with, having huge effects on subjective experience. Any ordinary human has at his or her disposal a field for the performance of countless invisible actions. The echoes and commentary, the chatter and cajoling, are as vivid as anything in our inner lives. You can be sitting motionless, watching an unchanging scene, and your mind can be alive with this stuff, teeming with it in a great jumble. Inner speech is so subjectively prominent, for many people that it can be overwhelming, the endless chatter fo something people use meditation to get away from. ~ 149