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3 Gestalt
tures in animal minds: They are entities of a biological nature that arise in the
minds of living creatures. Information can be coded as data—for instance as
sequences of 0s and 1s—but Gestalts cannot be coded. Gestalts are mental
realities whose domain is the conscious mind. Only a mind has the power to
retain a body of knowledge (for example a scientific concept)—all of it present
at the same time in the window of awareness—and draw a conclusion which
is based on the whole structure seen as one.
Thinking It and Speaking It
The human mind possesses a most remarkable resource: It is able to unravel
a Gestalt thought and transform it into a sequential structure of words. For
example, we’re able to conceive of a complex event and then relate it as a narrative, using words. This is a singularly difficult and creative process, because the
Gestalt must be totally restructured: It must be unpacked and then reassembled
in a radically different form.
You’re not aware of this labor in everyday conversation because a dedicated
module in the human brain (known as Broca’s area) does this work in the
background. However, you’re aware of the effort when you’re writing a difficult
technical report and feel it’s a small miracle if your written account truly
matches your initial thought. We’re always faced with the need to shoehorn
complicated ideas into the tight structure of sentences. We’re often forced to
compromise and make do with a sentence which is an approximation of what
we’d really like to say. It is in this way that language constrains and regiments
the range of ideas we’re able to exchange.
The power to serialize a Gestalt would be of little value if the human mind
weren’t able, likewise, to take in a narrative given in words, and transform it
into a Gestalt. We do this automatically whenever we hear a story or listen to
somebody speaking. The primary function of human language is to evoke, or
build up Gestalts in a listener’s mind.
Common sense regards language as a straightforward means of communicating
facts or ideas from a speaker to a listener. In order to accomplish this, words
must refer to objects and events in the world. That is correct, of course, but it
is not the real essence of language. Rather, the profound function of language
is to decompose holistic images and thoughts of a speaker and transmute their
meaning into a linear code of linguistic utterances. These are transmitted in
serial fashion and received in serial order by a listener, who is then able to transform them in his own mind back into holistic thoughts and images similar to
those of the speaker.
3 Gestalt
tures in animal minds: They are entities of a biological nature that arise in the
minds of living creatures. Information can be coded as data—for instance as
sequences of 0s and 1s—but Gestalts cannot be coded. Gestalts are mental
realities whose domain is the conscious mind. Only a mind has the power to
retain a body of knowledge (for example a scientific concept)—all of it present
at the same time in the window of awareness—and draw a conclusion which
is based on the whole structure seen as one.
Thinking It and Speaking It
The human mind possesses a most remarkable resource: It is able to unravel
a Gestalt thought and transform it into a sequential structure of words. For
example, we’re able to conceive of a complex event and then relate it as a narrative, using words. This is a singularly difficult and creative process, because the
Gestalt must be totally restructured: It must be unpacked and then reassembled
in a radically different form.
You’re not aware of this labor in everyday conversation because a dedicated
module in the human brain (known as Broca’s area) does this work in the
background. However, you’re aware of the effort when you’re writing a difficult
technical report and feel it’s a small miracle if your written account truly
matches your initial thought. We’re always faced with the need to shoehorn
complicated ideas into the tight structure of sentences. We’re often forced to
compromise and make do with a sentence which is an approximation of what
we’d really like to say. It is in this way that language constrains and regiments
the range of ideas we’re able to exchange.
The power to serialize a Gestalt would be of little value if the human mind
weren’t able, likewise, to take in a narrative given in words, and transform it
into a Gestalt. We do this automatically whenever we hear a story or listen to
somebody speaking. The primary function of human language is to evoke, or
build up Gestalts in a listener’s mind.
Common sense regards language as a straightforward means of communicating
facts or ideas from a speaker to a listener. In order to accomplish this, words
must refer to objects and events in the world. That is correct, of course, but it
is not the real essence of language. Rather, the profound function of language
is to decompose holistic images and thoughts of a speaker and transmute their
meaning into a linear code of linguistic utterances. These are transmitted in
serial fashion and received in serial order by a listener, who is then able to transform them in his own mind back into holistic thoughts and images similar to
those of the speaker.