Human Communication and Symbolic Thinking
Human Beings are Rational Because of Symbolic Layers
The human being is rational because it has layers of symbols. Symbols allow us to organize our experience and give meaning and significance to the world.
Symbols
Symbols are signs that represent something distant in space and time (words, numbers, flags).
Features of symbols:
- They are different from what is symbolized.
- They are created artificially (traffic signals).
- They are transmitted by learning, expressing everything.
- They allow symbolic or abstract thinking beyond the immediate and the present.
Language
Language is the ultimate expression of human symbolic layers. It is the most complex communication system.
Advantages of language:
- It names and gives meaning to the material and the spiritual.
- It creates and plays, which builds knowledge and human culture.
Communication is important for survival because life requires cooperation.
It is the process whereby an individual sends a signal (message) to another individual (receiver), causing a response (behavior change).
All species are able to communicate; the only variation is the complexity, with features that make up language.
- It is doubly articulated because it consists of a limited number of basic units that are agreed upon.
- Symbolism is built by signs.
- It is acquired, unlike animal communication signals, which are innate.
- The relationship between signifier and signified is conventional (agreed upon).
Natural Language
Natural language is what we use to communicate and express feelings, thoughts, etc.
Difficulties of natural language:
- Ambiguity: Polysemous words (e.g., “bank”).
- Misunderstanding due to the misuse of language (e.g., “only”/”solo”).
- Paradoxes: These occur despite the correct use of language, producing a contradiction (e.g., “I’m a liar. Everything I say is a lie, so I am a liar.”).
Artificial Language
Artificial language is used to avoid these difficulties and allow greater accuracy and objectivity. These are the languages of the sciences.
Features of formal or artificial language:
- It does not use words but signs (numbers).
- Operators are bound by rules (+, -, *, /,).
- There are rules that dictate how to use operators.
- What is important is the formal validity of reasoning, not the meaning.
Reasoning
Reasoning is a set of sentences from which we deduce a correct conclusion (i.e., we have applied the rules of logic).
Parts of an argument:
- Premises: Statements that are part of the reasoning.
- Conclusion: Results from reasoning.
- Deduction: The rational act of obtaining conclusions from the premises.
Types of Logic
Class Logic or Predicate Logic (Classical Logic)
The basic unit it works with are predicates or concepts.
- Predicate: A group of elements or kinds of things with a common feature.
- This logic studies reasoning in which a conclusion of lesser generality follows from some statements (premises).
Deductive Reasoning: Propositional or Symbolic Logic
This kind of logic uses statements or propositions as the basic unit.
- Statement: A linguistic segment with complete sense.
- It deals with studying the rules of inference between statements without analyzing their internal structure.
Elements of propositional logic: Negation, disjunction, conditional, and biconditional.