A thought is something for which the question of truth arises. So I ascribe what is false to a thought just as much as what is true. So I can say: the thought is the sense of the sentence without wishing to say as well that the sense of every sentence is a thought….We say a sentence expresses a thought.
Notes: it seems to say that every sentence has sense, but not every sentence has truth value. (think of “Get out!”)
It may nevertheless be thought that we cannot recognize a property of a thing without at the same time realizing the thought that this thing has this property to be true.
We need to distinguish:
- the apprehension of a thought: thinking.
- the recognition of the truth of a thought: judgment.
- the manifestation of this judgment: assertion.
We declare the recognition of truth in the form of an indicative sentence. We do not have to use the word “true for this. And even when we do use it, the real assertive force lies, not in it, but in the form of the indicative sentence and where this loses its assertive force the word “true” cannot put it back again. (such as an assertion by an actor on stage)
The contents of a sentence often go beyond the thoughts expressed by it (think of poems). But the opposite often happens too, that the mere wording, which can be grasped by writing, does not suffice for the expression of the thought. In such cases the mere wording, as it is given in writing, is not the complete expression of the thought, but the knowledge of certain accompanying conditions of utterance, which are used as means of expressing the thought, is needed for its correct apprehension. (think of “I am a man”, “here is snowing”…you need to know who is “I” and where is “here”）
Question: is it the same thought which first a man expresses to himself (in his heart/as an inner-thought) and the one that man expresses to others (openly/ in words)?
How are ideas distinct from the things of the outer world, and do thoughts belong to this inner world (the world of ideas)?
Some distinctions between ideas and the things of the outer world:
- ideas cannot be touched or seen, cannot be smelled, nor tasted, nor heard.
- ideas are had. An ideas which someone has belongs to the content of his consciousness. (sounds familiar right? I think, therefore I am…)
- ideas need a bearer. Things of the outer world are however independent.
- every idea has only one bearer; no two men have the same idea.
Thoughts are obvious not things of the outer world, but they are neither things of the inner world, otherwise there are no objective true or false for each thought since everyone’s thought only belongs to his ideas.
A third realm must be recognized. What belongs to this corresponds with ideas, in that it cannot be perceived by the senses, but with things, in that it needs no bearer to the contents of whose consciousness to belong. Thus the thought, for example, which we expressed in the Pythagorean theorem is timelessly true, true independently of whether anyone takes it to be true. It needs no bearer. It is not true for the first time when it is discovered, but is like a planet which, already before anyone has seen it, has been in interaction with other planets.
(After some long lengthy discussion on thoughts and ideas…) Not everything that can be the object of my understanding is an idea. I, as a bearer of ideas, am not not myself an idea. Nothing now stands in the way of recognizing other people to be bearers of ideas as I am myself. Not everything is an idea. Thus I can also recognize the thought, which other people can grasp just as much as I, as being independent of me. We are not bearers of thoughts as we are bearers of our ideas. We do not have a thought as we have, say, a sense-impression, but we also do not see a thought as we see, say, a start. So it is advisable to choose a special expression and the word ‘apprehend’ offers itself for the purpose. A particular mental capacity, the power of thought, must correspond to the apprehension of thought. In thinking we do not produce thoughts but we apprehend them.
The apprehension of a thought presupposes someone who apprehends it, who thinks He is the bearer of the thinking but of the thought. Although the thought does not belong to the content of the thinker’s consciousness, yet something in his consciousness must be aimed at the thought.
The thought is timeless. The time indication that may be contained in the sentence belongs only to the expression of the truth (as in “the tree in spring is covered with leaves”, and without time indication, there is no complete thought) while the truth, whose recognition lies in the form of the indicative sentence, is timeless.
How does a thought act? By being apprehended and taken to be true. This is a process in the inner world of a thinker which can have further consequences in this inner world and which, encroaching on the sphere of the will, can also make itself noticeable in the outer world.
