buttercat1791 on Nostr: There's definitely image-based thinking and word-based thinking. Maybe we could add ...

There's definitely image-based thinking and word-based thinking. Maybe we could add symbol-based thinking underneath both. Words and images are both symbols.

That is distinct from the sort of embodied thinking you described, like planning a path to walk or playing an instrument.

I would argue that abstract concepts often come into the mind *before* we have the language to describe them. The symbols allow us to grasp the concepts concretely.

Having something "on the tip of your tongue" would seem to be an instance of an abstract concept preceding the language used to grasp it.