SYMBOLS AND THOUGHT

No one need deny the importance of language to thought and cognition. At the same time, there is a tendency in studies of mind and mental fu nctioning to assume that properties and principles of linguistic, or l anguage-like, forms of representation must hold of forms of thought an d representation in general. Consideration of a wider range of symbol systems shows that this is not so. In turn, various claims and argumen ts in cognitive theory that depend on assumptions applicable only to l inguistic systems, do not go through or become difficult to state in a manner that makes them both interesting and plausible.