Imagine growing up without words. You live in a typical industrialized household, but you are somehow unable to learn the language of your parents. That means that you do not have access to education; you cannot properly communicate with your family other than through a set of idiosyncratic gestures; you never get properly exposed to abstract ideas such as “justice” or “global warming.” All you know comes from direct experience with the world.

What Lack Of Language Practically Means

It might seem that this scenario is purely hypothetical. There aren’t any cases of language deprivation in modern industrialized societies, right? It turns out there are. Many deaf children born into hearing families face exactly this issue. They cannot hear and, as a result, do not have access to their linguistic environment. Unless the parents learn sign language, the child’s language access will be delayed and, in some cases, missing completely.

Lack Of Language Is Not A Scenario. It’s Some People’s Reality. 

Does our mind develop normally under such circumstances? Of course not. Language enables us to receive vast amounts of information we would have never acquired otherwise. The details of your parents’ wedding. The Declaration of Independence. The entrée section of the dinner menu. The entire richness of human experience condensed into a linear sequence of words. Take language away, and the amount of information you can acquire decreases dramatically.

Language And The Mind

The lack of language affects even functions that do not seem to be intrinsically “linguistic,” such as math. Developmental research shows that keeping track of exact numbers above four requires knowing the words for these numbers. Imagine trying to tell the difference between seven apples and eight apples. The task becomes almost impossible if you can’t count them—and you can’t count them if you never learn that “seven” is followed by “eight.” As a result of this language-number interdependency, many deaf children fall behind in math, precisely because they did not learn to count early on.

Language And Number Interdepedency

Another part of your mind that needs language to develop properly is social cognition. Think about your interactions with your family and friends. Why is your mom upset? Why did your friend go inside the house just now? Understanding social situations requires inferring what the people around you are thinking.

Language And Social Cognition

Ludwig Wittgenstein claimed that “the limits of my language mean the limits of my world”; So far, the evidence does suggest that the limits of our language mean the limits of our world. However, what happens if language disappears once the mind is fully developed? Will we then lose the ability to use math and understand others?

What If Language Is There And Then It Disappears? 

Imagine you are a typical adult; let’s say you’re 40. You wake up one day, and suddenly, you realize that your language is gone. You look around the room, but no words come to mind to describe the objects you see. You’re starting to plan out your day, but no half-formed phrases rush through your mind. You unlock your smartphone, but, instead of text, you see a sea of squiggles. Desperate, you cry out for help, and someone rushes up to you—but, instead of speech, all you hear is meaningless murmur.

Nightmare Scenario: You Wake Up And Your Language Is Gone

The condition described above is known as global aphasia. It arises from severe damage to the brain, often as a result of a massive stroke. While some aphasias are temporary, in some cases the damage is irreparable, and the person may lose language for life. In your case, let’s say that a dozen doctors examined you and said (or, you think they said) that nothing can be done. If the limits of your language mean the limits of your world, should you conclude that the way you experience the world is now fundamentally limited? Do you even have a mind?

Again, Not A Scenario. It’s A Reality, Called Global Aphasia. 

Research on adult individuals with aphasia has demonstrated that math, theory of mind, and many other cognitive abilities are independent from language. Patients with severe language impairments perform comparably to the rest of us when asked to complete arithmetic tasks, reason about people’s intentions, determine physical causes of actions, or decide whether a drawing depicts a real-life event. Some of them play chess in their spare time. Some even engage in creative tasks. Soviet composer Vissarion Shebalin continued to write music even after a stroke that left him severely aphasic.

Loss Of Language Doesn’t Equal Loss Of Mind

In recent years, neuroscientists have isolated a network of brain regions (typically in the left hemisphere) that react almost exclusively to linguistic input. They respond to written sentences, spoken narratives, words, monologues, conversations, but will not activate in response to memory tasks, spatial reasoning, music, math, or social situations that do not involve dialogue. No wonder many patients with aphasia do not have impairments in other cognitive domains—language and other functions are housed in separate chunks of brain matter.

Language Is Separate From The Rest Of Cognition

Many great thinkers have drawn a strong connection between language and the mind. Oscar Wilde called language “the parent, and not the child, of thought”; Ludwig Wittgenstein claimed that “the limits of my language mean the limits of my world”; and Bertrand Russell stated that the role of language is “to make possible thoughts which could not exist without it.”

Language And The Mind - The Writers’ Perspective

Not all writers support Wittgenstein’s and Russell’s idea that language and thought are inseparable. Tom Lubbock, a British writer and illustrator whose language system gradually deteriorated because of a brain tumor, wrote in his memoir shortly before his death in 2011:““My language to describe things in the world is very small, limited. My thoughts when I look at the world are vast, limitless and normal, same as they ever were. My experience of the world is not made less by lack of language but is essentially unchanged.”

Language And The Mind - A Language-less Writer’s Perspective

So, what can we say about the role language plays in shaping our minds? Well, pick a mind that is still developing, and you will find that removing language will alter it for life. However, pick a mind that is fully formed and take all words away, and you will discover that the rest of cognition remains mostly intact. Our language is but a scaffold for our minds: indispensable during construction but not necessary for the building to remain in place.

Once We Acquire Language, We Can Live Without It

Language is the dress of thought.

Language is what makes us human, what lies at the root of our awareness, our intellect, our sense of self. Without it, we cannot plan, cannot communicate, cannot think. Or can we?

Once we acquire language, we can live without it.

Language Is the Scaffold of the Mind

We’ve all heard of situations where people refuse to change their minds, no matter what the evidence suggests.What motivates such irrational stubbornness?

Why We Cling To Beliefs

In the 1950s, Leon Festinger joined a cult known as the “Seekers.”The Seekers had recently been warned by aliens that on December 21, 1954, a massive flood would swamp the Western Seaboard of the United States.They published this prophecy in the local newspaper.Festinger thought the prophecy was nonsense. But he wanted to understand how people responded when their worldview came crashing down.There was no massive flood on December 21, 1954. When the Seekers realized their prophecy had failed, one cult member began crying. The others sat in stunned silence.

Cult

The seekers were experiencing cognitive dissonance: the deep discomfort that arises when one’s beliefs and identity are called into question.To reduce this discomfort, we can respond in one of two ways.<ol><li>When faced with evidence that our beliefs are wrong, the rational response would be to update our beliefs.</li><li>However, experiments by Festinger and colleagues show that sometimes people go to great lengths to protect their beliefs. Instead of changing their minds, they reduce dissonance by ignoring contradictions and seeking out new supporting “evidence”</li></ol>

Cognitive dissonance

So what are the factors that cause us to cling to our beliefs far longer than we should? Here are two:<ol><li>We cling to beliefs that are key to our sense of “self.” Some “selves” are more important to us than others. The cult members, for instance, were willing to endure intense and public ridicule to be a Seeker.</li><li>We cling to beliefs that are key to our social groups. On our own, it’s difficult to ignore or fight evidence that overwhelmingly proves our beliefs wrong. But when we have social support, it’s much easier to maintain a shared sense of reality.</li></ol>

Changing minds

If more and more people can be persuaded that the system of belief is correct, then clearly it must, after all, be correct.And beyond mere solidarity of numbers, our social groups give us something else too: a sense of “belonging.”The need to “belong” is a powerful motivator — many of us will even support group beliefs that go against our own interests to maintain our group identity.Thus, when beliefs we hold align with our identity and the identities of our social groups, we’ll hold onto them, as long as we can.

Belonging

A “fascinating” (Charles Duhigg) and “must-read” (Annie Duke) “page-turning package” (Publishers Weekly starred review) for understanding identity and showing how our groups have a powerful influence on our feelings, beliefs, and behavior—and can inspire both personal change and social movements. If you're like most people, you probably believe that your identity is stable. But in fact, your identity is constantly changing—often outside your conscious awareness and sometimes even against your wishes—to reflect the interests of the groups you belong to. In The Power of Us, psychologists Dominic Packer and Jay Van Bavel integrate their own cutting-edge research in psychology and neuroscience to explain how identity really works and how to harness its dynamic nature to: Boost cooperation and productivity Overcome bias Escape from echo chambers Break political gridlock Foster dissent and mobilize for change Lead effectively Galvanize action to address persistent global problems Along the way, they explore such seemingly unrelated phenomena as why a small town in Germany spent decades divided by shoes, why beliefs persist after they are disproven, how working together synchronizes our brains, what makes selfish people generous, why effective leaders say “we” a lot, and how playing soccer can reduce age-old conflicts. Understanding how identity works allows people to take control, moving beyond wondering, “Who am I?” to answer instead, “Who do I want to be?” Packed with fascinating insights, vivid case studies, and a wealth of pioneering research, The Power of Us will change the way you understand yourself—and the people around you—forever.

The Power of Us

Hii!! In this stash I'm going to give you few ideas to earn respect from others. If you feel or thing that you don't have much respect at your workplace or school (or any other place), then I will suggest you to read the following ideas.

How to Earn RESPECT?

Try to talk calmly. Even when you are angry. This will force the other side to respond respectfully. This is same as you are talking with a 3-4 year boy. Please them with your world famous singer voice and wait for magic to happen.

Talk peacefully

The more you give respect to others,  the more will other respects you back. It can be difficult at once. But as soon it becomes a habit, you will be most respected among others. This is a basic law of nature. Feel it by thinking about it sitting alone.

Give respect = Receive respect

It is important to understand even the things which can't talk or shout on us, wants respect also. The laptop or mobile on which you are reading this, deserves a huge respect from you. Is charging device is not enough? No. It is like action-reaction interaction. If you respect your mobile, I bet it will never leave you in your worst times. How do I respect non-livings? It is simple. Just thank them after you use them. If you are shy, do it in your mind. The subconscious world will do the rest.

Respect non-livings

People respect matures. A child wants attention not respect. A teenager wants attention from parents and respect from friends. An adult wants respect. So be mature. How to? It's simple again. Give yourself time. Sit alone for some time daily. Talk to yourself. Your inner-you knows more about you. Try it. Talk with your you.

Try to be Mature and Confident

Achieve something in your life. Apart from YouTube Subscribers. Something that forces youngers or may be elders to respect you. So that they mention you in their words. Start with small. People with Job and people without job, compare two you will find what i want to tell you.

Achievements

Just don't be rude in the whole process. I agree that path will be difficult, but don't lose your temper. Else you will ruin all your hard work. Pythagoras quoted "A fool is known by his speech and a wise man by silence"

Final Words

If you want to know about respect issues with boys, read "Love and respect issues with boys" on my profile.

Know More

I faced respect problems. And I solved them. Thus I want to share some lessons that life taught me.

Scientists haven’t solved this still called “Hard Problem of Consciousness,” and a materialist solution is nowhere in sight. Not for lack of trying. Some, improving on Darwin, insist that chimpanzees really do think like people if you study them enough (no, they don’t). Others claim that artificial intelligence will soon surpass human intelligence. If so, that would be a credit to human intelligence because we created it.

Is The Mind Simply An Organ That Evolved Naturally?

AI capable of thinking like a human would be a philosophical problem, to be sure, because it would mean both that intelligence can create itself and that it can be instantiated in a non-biological form. However, such a development would not demonstrate that human intelligence is a material thing or that it arose from a material thing. If anything, it would more readily suggest the opposite.

Is Human Intelligence A Material Thing?

Neil Thomas, Reader Emeritus in the University of Durham, England and a longtime member of the British Rationalist Association notes the key role neuroscience has played in undermining a purely materialist account of the mind — an unexpected role for neuroscience, perhaps, but that’s what happened:”Neuroscientist Donald Hoffman, who once worked with DNA co-discoverer Francis Crick in attempting to crack the problem of human consciousness, recently conceded that the nature and origins of consciousness remain “completely unsolved” and may best be termed an eternal mystery.”

Undermining The Materialistic Account Of The Mind

The brusque and decidedly no-nonsense Crick was in the event fated to meet his Waterloo when it came to the subject of consciousness, explains Hoffman. Crick had at first attempted to explain it somewhat airily as nothing but an “emergent” property which “naturally” arose when matter reaches a certain level of complexity. However, he was at length obliged to withdraw that vacuous contention, conceding that there is nothing about conscious experience that is relatable to the physical stuff or material of the brain. Consciousness simply lies beyond our empirical perception and cognitive reach.

Consciousness Just Cannot “Arise Naturally” 

Hoffman develops the point further: “At the most microcosmic level the brain consists of subatomic particles which have qualities like mass, spin and charge. There is nothing about these qualities that relates to the qualities associated with consciousness such as thought, taste, pain or anxiety.” To suggest otherwise, continues Hoffman, would be like asserting that numbers might emerge from biscuits or ethics from rhubarb.

Numbers Just Cannot Emerge From Biscuits

Both Hoffman and Crick were finally forced to conclude that all purely physicalist theories of consciousness had failed to provide illumination and that the state of consciousness could not be explained in neurological terms, a conclusion powerfully endorsed for more than three decades by distinguished British neuroscientist Raymond Tallis in his long opposition to what he terms “Darwinitis.”Any physicalist theory of consciousness must reckon with the fact that consciousness deals with information, which is not a material thing and follows different principles from matter and energy.

Darwinitis

One outcome in science today is the rise of panpsychism, the view that all life forms participate in consciousness to at least some minimal. Panpsychism attracts many because it allows consciousness to be real rather than illusory (as per physicalism) but it remains in the same general thought world as, say, Hoffman — though not that of Richard Dawkins. Wallace himself, as Hoffman notes, came to embrace a sort of natural theology. He contributed to a number of streams of early twentieth-century thought, as Michael Flannery’s book Nature’s Prophet details.

Panpsychism

The bottom line seems to be that we are not only ignorant but, alas, prostrate in our ignorance of the brain’s arcana. Theoretically, of course, there may yet emerge an as yet undiscovered materialist explanation for the brain and human consciousness. But to date we must conclude that today’s science cannot with integrity support such a claim on the evidence presently available.In any event, neuroscience today could marshall as many arguments in support of Wallace’s view of the human mind than of Darwin’s.

Natural Selection Vs Natural Thrology

Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913) share the credit, technically, for the theory of evolution by natural selection but Darwin became the icon. One reason they parted ways was that Wallace did not agree with Darwin that the human mind was simply an organ that evolved naturally, like any other. There had to be something more to it.

Philosopher Neil Thomas points out how neuroscience today has undermined a purely materialist account of the mind — an unexpected role but that’s what happened.

The Battle Over the Human Mind That Split Two Great Thinkers

David Goggins: U.S navy seal whose life was filled with hardships, the book covers his story on how he calloused his mind to overcome the hurdles. Whenever you try to do something out of your comfort zone, Mind acts like a governor, a voice that pops up, a big lie that brain comes up with all sort of reasoning so you stay in comfort zone,brain just wants comfort zone and Denial is the best comfort zone. Because brain always tries to simplify things.

Calloused BRAIN

Everyday try to do something uncomfortable even a little so that brain gets calloused instead of getting scared of your fear and insecurities, it will always haunt you, having victim state of mind is waste of time, nothing changes but keeps you in a lopp of problem mindset. Identify week links and challenge them. Dig on things that you know are surely important for you but you are not doing.

Growth Does Not Come From Comfort Zone

When you go past your percieved limit, you will realise how capable you are, most of us give up when we have put only 40% effort and failed, but theres still 60% more effort left. So whenever you feel you have reached your limit think as if you have put only 40% effort and theres still 60% more. This gives second wave of energy

40% - 60% Effort 

Whenever you feel you have reached your limit and path ahead seems difficult then use cookie jar method.Make a list of all your achievements and put it in imaginary jar and when you think you have reached your limit, take out a cookie and remember what you accomplished, it can be even a small achievement, remind yourself about how it felt. This will enable you with second wave of energy

Cookie Jar Method

We dont rise to the level of expectation, but we fall to the level of training. When failed dont say it is not meant to me, but try harder. Train more. But not at the cost of health, be in state of ‘Peaceful but never satisified'Goggins took several ultramarathons of miles both with and without preparation, there was a stark difference, do not consider anything for granted , do the homework.

No TRAINING VS TRAINING

Constantly recheck the map you are heading, and know overconfidence can kill. Identify where you are heading and never ignore knowledge coming your way due to your ego. Once reached the destination dont let the ego think you are the greatest because somebody out there who is at next level. You are your only competition. Peaceful but never satisfied.

Check The Flow Of Your Direction

Biggest motivation and inspiration comes from the story of goggins in the book itself as your read more than the important lessons mentioned above. I recommend reading the book.Its time to break some of your limits.

Biggest Lesson Is From The Story Of Goggins In The Full Book

Goggins used to listen to Rocky Balboa's(boxer) music to pump him up with energy. Music activates various parts of the brain, reminds your brain of the state you were in when you had listened to the song.

Having A Song To Energize You

Inspires you with the story of David Goggins : U.S Navy seal about how he overcame his life full of hardships and how he motivated himself amidst uncertainity and achieved greatness by breaking the limit set by the mind and inspires you to break the limiting beliefs you set for yourself by coming out of comfort zone. The book is complete story of his life and I summarized some lessons to be learnt from the book.

New York Times Bestseller Over 2.5 million copies sold For David Goggins, childhood was a nightmare - poverty, prejudice, and physical abuse colored his days and haunted his nights. But through self-discipline, mental toughness, and hard work, Goggins transformed himself from a depressed, overweight young man with no future into a U.S. Armed Forces icon and one of the world's top endurance athletes. The only man in history to complete elite training as a Navy SEAL, Army Ranger, and Air Force Tactical Air Controller, he went on to set records in numerous endurance events, inspiring Outside magazine to name him The Fittest (Real) Man in America. In this curse-word-free edition of Can't Hurt Me, he shares his astonishing life story and reveals that most of us tap into only 40% of our capabilities. Goggins calls this The 40% Rule, and his story illuminates a path that anyone can follow to push past pain, demolish fear, and reach their full potential.

Language Is the Scaffold of the Mind

The Power of Us

How to Earn RESPECT?

The Battle Over the Human Mind That Split Two Great Thinkers

Can't Hurt Me

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