Rola obrazów mentalnych w procesie myślenia zwierząt. Czy język jest warunkiem koniecznym myślenia?

Honorata KorpikiewiczInstytut Filozofii UAMAbstract The Importance of Mental Images in the Thinking of Animals Is Language a Necessary Condition of Thinking?In the article it is argued that the conviction that verbally expressed language (as commonly em-ployed by  humans) is  necessary for  thinking is  not  justified. Animals have been found to  employ various communication systems (languages) and, though these are different from human language, they testify to consciousness and thought. Recent research among autistic people has indicated that they frequently think in images rather than words, and it is suggested that this was the original feature of human thinking and may also be the basis of animal thinking. Keywords:thinking, consciousness, brain, autism, mental image