Resumo
Should human language be considered simply as a vehicle of communication or it does more than that in working as a kind of a software installed in the human brain, therefore contributing to the guidance of our minds and behaviour in solving complex issues related to human life? In his article titled Magic Words: How Language Augments Human Computation, Andy Clark defends the second position, which is contested in this paper. This article aims to analysing Clarks position concerning the role attributed to language in relation to the task attributed above. To refute this position, the paper employs the argument that Plato takes in the discussion developed in the book titled Meno to conclude that language results from the activity of the mind in its interaction with the external world since language is a by-product of human thinking. This paper employs a qualitative, hermeneutical and bibliographical approach to analyse Clark’s position developed in the above-mentioned paper. From the discussion developed, it is concluded that the mind does not have a kind of software installed in it by human language as Clark claims. Rather human knowledge, which is conveyed through language, works as the software with the task of contributing for the changes happening in our brain and behaviour. This means, therefore, that our minds are capable of thinking independently of them using human language or not.
Keywords: Language, communication, human brain, mind, thinking