What importance does language have for our thinking? What possibilities does it give us when we use words? How does a word get its meaning? Those questions will guide us to the concept. They also guide us to the Vorstellung. Where we get first, concept or Vorstellung, that depends on what path we take with our thoughts.
Perception and thinking is all that is given to us as humans. That is our starting point and with those two gifts we try to figure out who we are and where we are. We notice that perceptions are presented to us, they flow towards us. We are only active with our choice of where to direct our attention. That way we decide what we consciously perceive. Here we can also find rules: new and unknown perceptions draw our attention. We want to know when a situation becomes possibly dangerous for us. Well-known perceptions on the other hand often pass by without us taking notice.
So what happens when we perceive something unknown or direct our attention to a perception for other reasons? We start thinking. We want to figure out what caused the perception. We are looking for a concept. We can observe that best when we perceive something we cannot assign right away to any concept. Mostly we hear or see something and immediately know the concept behind that: This noise is a singing bird, that noise is an airplane passing by, we see something over there and recognize immediately the neighbors cat. And standing on that table is a cup. Known things we recognize so quickly that we do not notice the process. But sometimes we perceive something and cannot assign it to anything. Then we become restless. We wonder what it could be, if it resembles anything we know. We direct our attention to it, try to get more input, more hints on what we see. We look for something relatable in the new perception. We become active, move around, look from as many perspectives as we can. Only when we manage to get an idea of what we face, when we start to find a concept for it, then we can calm down again.
We find this concept with our thinking, and we name it using a word. If we do not yet have a word we help ourselves with a description. Do to so we look for sub-concepts that we already know and have words for. If we don’t know what a cup is, we can describe it as a container for drinking, which can have a handle. The availability of words can vary, for example to name a cup that must have a handle. The word “cup” was used that way in the past, and there still is a word for only that type of cup in German. But in English there are only more specific words now, like teacup. Typically, we connect a concept with a word. That is why we have a language. This word can bring the concept into our thoughts just like the perception of any object representing the concept. We enrich the concepts and individualize them with matching perceptions and matching words. The result of this can be called a Vorstellung. This Vorstellung is always triggered when we have a fitting perception or when we hear the word. The sum of all our Vorstellung we can call experience. Many extensive Vorstellung make us rich in experience. With our experience grows our Weltbild. The Weltbild is our network, in which we sort all our Vorstellung and interconnect them.
When we think we are often using words. We use them to consciously formulate thoughts. To do so it is essential that we know the word. That means, we must have the word connected to an individualized concept, to a Vorstellung. This contains both the concept itself and all the perceptions that we have connected with it. With unknown words we cannot formulate a thought. So what we really do is building our thoughts with concepts. The connection of concepts is the essential quality of a thought. Forming those actively is thinking in its most alive and vivid from. However, we often carry our Vorstellung into our thoughts. Then finished pictures cover up the concepts and our thinking looses liveliness and flexibility.
When we think a word our thinking automatically delivers the assigned concept. A word that comes into mind has the same effect as a word first heard or read and then thought. It is the same process that also adds concepts to all our perceptions. With conscious thinking the words are often prominent, we think similar to how we speak. The concepts are always in the back of our mind when we do that. This becomes evident when we are confronted with unknown words, for example when reading. Words trigger an activity of our thinking just like all other perceptions. It complements the concepts to each word, as it does to each perception. To do so, thinking makes use of our experience, the sum of our individualized concepts.
If we want to clarify the concept that belongs to a word, it is useful to start with an example. An example has to be valid, it must belong to the concept. To find such an example we must already know the concept. The purpose of clarifying it simply is to bring this knowledge forward into our consciousness, and possibly adjust it. Unknown concepts we cannot clarify, and for unknown words we don’t even have a concept. Then we need help. Additionally, the example should be specific. For concepts of things that can be physically created we can use a specific object, for example the teacup in front of us. For abstract concepts like hope or loyalty a specific situation is useful, preferably something we personally experienced.
We are also able to think without words. We can directly imagine a future condition and then act to make it a reality. If someone then asks us what we thought when acting, we probably have no words. Especially when our action did not quite result in what we imagined, or has other unforeseen effects. Then we must begin to think, find our motive and most of all find words to describe that motive.