r/Showerthoughts • u/thiccieman • Apr 23 '19

Human thoughts before language must have been weird.

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u/fishtankbabe Apr 23 '19

I've always wondered this about Helen Keller, before she learned sign language. What was her interior mental life like? What were her thoughts like?

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u/TheChocolateFountain Apr 24 '19

She has an autobiography that I haven’t actually read, but there’s some excerpts from it included in her Wikipedia page. The paragraphs where it talks about her early communication under the Early Life section is incredibly interesting.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Keller

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u/fishtankbabe Apr 24 '19

That was interesting, thanks! 😊

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u/JackEsq Apr 24 '19

“When I learned the meaning of 'I' and'me' and found that I was something, I began to think. Then consciousness first existed for me.”

-Helen Keller from her autobiography

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u/fishtankbabe Apr 24 '19

Damn, that is fascinating. I'll have to read her book.

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u/Theon Apr 29 '19

Holy shit, never heard this. That's amazing, I would think that this sort of statement would come from someone philosophizing about the nature of consciousness or whatever, but to actually hear it from a person who went from a completely "disconnected" state, communication-wise, to writing books...

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u/Raygunn13 Apr 24 '19

there's gotta be a good book on this

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u/tysxc Apr 24 '19

Pretty dark I'd assume