This book is a follow on from my "On the Origins of Speaking", the 2021 second edition, half the length of the 2005 original. Now I draw attention to the way our first proto-language with no words but only seventeen meaningful phonemes or single sounds, established at least 400,000 years ago when we were still only hominids, Homo Erectus, determines the way we speak and think today. Before we spoke we hardly thought consciously, only unconsciously and instinctively like a dog does, because thinking consciously requires a word or at least a phoneme as an icon to formulate each thought. Scientific American published an article in May 2025 suggesting it was possible to think without any icons, but this is not the case. We all think in words (or other verbal icons). People tend to think we have a mind and even that it may be found in the brain, but actually a mind is merely an abstract term for all an individual's thinking, and has no entity or existence and as an activity of the brain is not to be found in it, any more than the mileage of a motor car is to be found inside the motor, or indeed the activity of a horse inside the horse. To get everyone to adopt the same meaning for each phoneme when we had no speech to discuss the matter we adopted ideological thinking, and politically this is now the elephant in the room.
外文書商品之書封，為出版社提供之樣本。實際出貨商品，以出版社所提供之現有版本為主。部份書籍，因出版社供應狀況特殊，匯率將依實際狀況做調整。
無庫存之商品，在您完成訂單程序之後，將以空運的方式為你下單調貨。為了縮短等待的時間，建議您將外文書與其他商品分開下單，以獲得最快的取貨速度，平均調貨時間為1~2個月。
為了保護您的權益，「三民網路書店」提供會員七日商品鑑賞期(收到商品為起始日)。
若要辦理退貨，請在商品鑑賞期內寄回，且商品必須是全新狀態與完整包裝(商品、附件、發票、隨貨贈品等)否則恕不接受退貨。
