Sense and Knowledge
Chapter 18

Previous: Chapter 17, Objective Ways (Trial and Error Discovery)

Speculation

Consciousness and thought appears in infancy or childhood. There they may be initially taken for granted or not explicitly noticed. Only later are they questioned, if they are questioned at all. Vagueness of memory may hide the days when consciousness and thought began. A few speculative remarks follow. Despite being written in the third person, the remarks represent this author's image of his own consciousness, thought and ability to know.

An infant is born. His or her senses of touch, sight, sound, heat, smell and taste meet a new environment. Coordination comes slowly. As the infant moves, crawls and then walks, his or her mind (presumably) becomes aware of a difference between two parts of the surroundings. First, external to the mind is a body. This body is sensitive to indigestion and other discomforts. Some maintenance is required. Second, external to the body is an environment of objects, active, inactive and/or reactive. Here both the body and the environment external to it impinge on and react with the mind of the infant child. The boundaries of this body, the skin, especially on the fingers, along with the ears and the eyes provide sensations of the environment beyond the body. During exploration, the child may find that some caution is required, say to avoid repetition of painful experiences due to hot, cold, sharp or hard surfaces. Interaction with the environment brings sensations, sometimes pleasurable and sometimes not.

The child learns

In moving objects from here to there, in learning to get dressed and to eat, and in learning to talk, the child may come to accept the environment. Beyond this, the child may dream. The dreams of the child are perhaps echoes of recent experiences or sensations, the suggestions of others, or both. Dreams may be directed or not in the child's imagination where pleasant thoughts or fears may govern. (Directed dreams and images are a visual form of thought.)

In growing, the child may learn the difference between mental experiences, here dreams, and the ongoing physical experiences of the body and its five senses. The latter need to be given priority. Different times and cultures may favor a different emphasis. The undirected dreams or images may then be suppressed or discounted. That is, the child accepts the priority of the five external senses, the environment they represent, and does not remain or withdraw fully into the echo or memories of past experiences. Loss of control here may appear as madness or as a withdrawal from the world given by the physical senses.

The words of others are external to the child. Words provide information and instructions. When a noise is heard, a child will identify its source. The source is often external. But as the child learns to speak, the source is not external. That is, when a word is spoken, it echoes in the ears and therefore the mind of the talker.

Then in learning to read or speak silently, the external spoken word is internalized. [1] In this, the child finds an inner mind to explore. Silent words echo without an audible use of the vocal chords, if they are used at all. They are heard in the mind. The infant or child needs to learn to recognize this silent voice as his or her own, a voice that may remain one and not be divided.

[1] In Roman days, loss of voice meant the loss of the ability to read aloud and hence the loss of the ability to read.

Thought appears to involve the formation of images in the mind, the formation of words on the lips or in the mind, and the formation or the recall of sensation fragments from the physical senses of sight, sound, touch and heat, taste and smell. When awake, this thought should or may remain linked to everyday reality, the sometimes rude external environment.

The thoughts of a person are not usually isolated. Interaction with the environment, the feeling that it is too hot here; body needs such as hunger; the voices/actions of others intervene and sometimes direct thoughts and actions. The words of others in particular pass on ideas and stories. Knowledge itself may be a reflection or a consequence of the ability to describe, to tell, understand and remember stories. As the infant child grows, stories as told by elders (or as written in books) transfer knowledge or pass on the culture and knowledge of a community. Organized or not, it is food for thought. When deliberately organized, as in education, this transfer may result in the accumulation of skills and techniques. In particular the deliberate description of rules and patterns, and the theories that they form, extends the ability to follow stories and act upon their content, their plots and the characters that exist within them.

Next: Chapter 18, part ii, The Child Learns

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