exaggeration. Minds greatly differ, and some think by the aid of
definite and comprehensive picturings, especially in dealing with
problems concerning objects in space, as in playing chess blindfold,
inventing a machine, planning a tour on an imagined map. Most people
draw many simple inferences by means of perceptions, or of mental
imagery. On the other hand, some men think a good deal without any
continuum of words and without any imagery, or with none that seems
relevant to the purpose. Still the more elaborate sort of thinking, the
grouping and concatenation of inferences, which we call reasoning,
cannot be carried far without language or some equivalent system of
signs. It is not merely that we need language to express our reasonings
and communicate them to others: in solitary thought we often depend on
words--'talk to ourselves,' in fact; though the words or sentences that
then pass through our minds are not always fully formed or articulated.
In Logic, moreover, we have carefully to examine the grounds (at least
the proximate grounds) of our conclusions; and plainly this cannot be
done unless the conclusions in question are explicitly stated and
recorded.

Conceptualists say that Logic deals not with the process of thinking
(which belongs to Psychology) but with its results; not with conceiving
but with concepts; not with judging but with judgments. Is the concept
self-consistent or adequate? Logic asks; is the judgment capable of
proof? Now, it is only by recording our thoughts in language that it
becomes possible to distinguish between the process and the result of
thought. Without language, the act and the product of thinking would be
identical and equally evanescent. But by carrying on the process in
language and remembering or otherwise recording it, we obtain a result
which may be examined according to the principles of Logic.