Abstract
I HAVE just noticed in a recent number of NATURE (May 12, p. 28) a letter from Mr. Francis Galton, in which he endeavours to prove that thought without words is by no means an impossibility. May I advance a small amount of confirmatory evidence which must, I think, have come within the notice of most people? This evidence is to be found in that peculiar state of mind produced when, as we say, we have a word βon the tip of the tongue.β In this case the idea which the word, when found, will represent is most vividly present to the mind, but it is an idea only. No language is needed to make it recognizable even though, as oftens happens, the idea may be of the most complicated and abstract kind.
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PICTON, H. Thought without Words. Nature 36, 125 (1887). https://doi.org/10.1038/036125a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/036125a0
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