title: Language as grist to the mill of cognition.
abstract: There is a growing consensus that natural language plays a significant role in our cognitive lives. However, this role of language is not adequately characterised. In this paper, I investigate the relationship between natural language and thinking and argue that thinking operates largely according to associationistic rules. Furthermore, I show that language is neither restricted to interfacing between a 'Language of Thought' and the conscious level, nor is it constitutively involved in thinking. Unlike available alternatives, the suggested view predicts and accommodates a large battery of empirical evidence. Furthermore, it avoids problems that associationistic views traditionally faced, e.g. problems of propositional thinking and compositionality of thought.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Philosophie, SFB 991, Project A03 "Grounded Cognition", Heinrich-Heine-Universität, Raum: 46.21.06.01, Kruppstraße 108, 40227, Düsseldorf, Germany, atillas@phil.uni-duesseldorf.de.
authors.forename: Alexandros
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tillas
mesh_terms: D001244:Association; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D013850:Thinking / Q000502:physiology*