Language is the materialization of the process of thinking in the integrated and self-sufficient phenomenon of "speech". In order to comprehend the nature of language in the process of thinking it is necessary to understand the phenomenon of speech as a "microcosm" of being, a small model of existence. To understand this means discovering the innermost laws of the creation and functioning of speech: "the process of human thinking and its materialization in language forms."

"The internal Logos and its materialization by the physical forms" is similar to the Absolute Truth or the "macrocosm" of Being. The law of the creation and functioning of the "microcosm" — "the process of human thinking and its materialization by language forms" — is an outcome of a knot of problems of knowledge at the first stage of the process of knowing. The further development of that process goes on to perfect both the "microcosm" and the "macrocosm". In other words, through the knowledge of the law of creation and the functioning of the "microcosm" of being that is human speech it is possible reliably to speak about all problems and their resolutions. All are found in conjunction with the truth of the "microcosm" and with the Absolute Truth of Being, as all problems are connected to truth.

The purpose of this article is not to summarize the truth of the "microcosm" and the Absolute Truth or "macrocosm", but to show the role of language culture in social progress. This should aid the person and society correctly to evaluate the knowledge fixed by the language forms in the different periods of the development of humanity.

We shall begin from a simple conversation of a tutor and student, in which the student with a certain preparation always gives the correct answer.

The tutor asks the student a question: Is there a process of thinking without any opportunity to materialize it in language forms?

Student: It is mute!

Tutor: That is completely correct! Is there another opportunity to materialize the process of thinking?

Student: Of course! In writing and gesture.

Tutor: But are there means to materialize language forms without a process of thinking?

Student: This does not happen! (Karimov, 1996, p. 4)

So through a conversation between tutor and student the latter discovers the answer to a major question in philosophy.

The process of thinking can be materialized in numerous forms of written speech: verbal (oral) and an infinite set of other artificial means created for this or that necessary sign system. The same process of thinking can be materialized by an infinite number of natural and artificial languages. The infinite number of material language forms hide its essence as a process of thinking, which is the sole means for comprehending the spiritual, and at the same time the main obstacle to the comprehension of the spiritual. If the mentality of a person is lower than the norms fixed by the language forms at a given stage of development of society, then comprehension of these forms is an obligatory condition for further progress in the comprehension of spiritual perfection. Alexey Nikolaevich Tolstoy speaks about this level:

In general we can think that speaking clever things and philosophizing is only for educated people, who are high above the crowd. This is a strange opinion which could be correct only if for clever speech and philosophy one needed to receive from clever books, combinations of still other words and other ideas. Then education and reading would be ballast for the brain that it hardly has time to digest, combine and generalize. Where would there be independent, original thinking? It would happen in the very few elect. (A.N. Tolstoy, 1961, p. 7).

 

When the language culture of a given level of development of society has been adopted, the person passes into the category of the elect, to independent thinking. In this case not only the popular values of the given society, but also the language norms (categories) of sensual perception and thought (ideal categories) are the main units of the process of thinking and can be obstacles in the way of comprehending spiritual perfection. Thus, the sensually perceived world is a "dark kingdom", whereas the spiritually perceived world is "The bright Kingdom of Truth". To reach the spiritual level of perception of being, the process of thinking must be cleared from the dark material as Indian philosophers say, and from the vision behind the habitual language forms" (Berkeley, 1978, p. 169).

The stratification of being consists of seven levels, through which a physical human essence should pass in the process of spiritual perfection:

1. The physical body without sensual perception; this is a biological base for perception of an information space (world).

2. The physical body with sensual perception; this perceives only the environmentally isolated physical world.

3. The physical body with thinkable perception which has not been freed from the common background of sensual perception. This is also the level of reflection. Here the weak display of perceptions of the world is observed, whereas the common background of sensual perception it almost imperceptible.

4. The physical body with thought, but not completely free from sensual perception. This has two worlds: the sensually perceived and the mentally perceived. It is the world of doubts, chaos and insoluble problems. This is the level of the mentality of modern man. Its measure (level) of development was described by the American cybernetic linguist Marvin Minsky as follows: "It is impossible to consider thinking to be sufficiently developed if it is not capable of addressing the analyses of its own process of thinking" (Minsky, 1988, p. 284).

5. The physical body with thought perception and free of sensual perception, but not free from "the deceit of words", as the habitual language forms include their habitual essence (the contents as units of the process of thinking).

6. The physical body with accomplished thought perception, capable of escaping not only the isolated habitual world of sensual perception, but also from the false world of "the deceit of words".

7. The physical body with the perfection of spiritual perception. This body is completely free from "dark material", that is from the captivities of the previous six worlds. This body is now the world of truth where the contents ("I" or spirit) of this body achieves perfection and ceases to require the physical world. The perfect consciousness is a spirit released from sensual perception and from all kinds of thinkable perception. This is the "I" or ego of the person; its truth lies outside subjective and predicative thought.

The spirit is the divine "I" of the person. When the person is born, it is most near to God and truth; as the divine "ego" it is not soiled with the norms of societies, traditions and conventions. Thereafter the divine spirit — the "I" of the person — begins to be defiled. The defilement of the spirit is the soul which permits it to define a nationality, residence, creed, employment, kind of thinking, etc., whereas the spirit is cosmopolitical, supra-human and divine.

The level of the content or "mentality" of language formed in human speech directly depends upon the level of perfection of the process of thinking. When the person has reached the spiritual level of perception of being, and has recognized its own "I" or own divine spirit, the content of one’s speech is truth, which excludes the existence of imperfect knowledge had by imperfect methods of research. The truth is comprehended only by a few and is unclear for others. For this reason peoples still have not repented that they persecuted their geniuses. In the Bhagavat-Gita it is remarked: "Live feelings are higher than dead matter, the mind is higher than feelings, the reason is higher than mind, and spirit is even higher than reason" (A.Ch. Sri Srimad, Bhagavat-Gita Bhaktivedanta Svami Prabhupada, p. 208). The language culture of a society is formed at the level of mind, but that language culture is penetrated by elements of both reason and spirit.

The intuitive or unconscious contains the spiritual or divine "I" of the person. This reflects the divine "I" of the person, which coincides with the "I" of Being as well as with Absolute Truth. For this reason, some statements of the people who have opened to the divine "I" are so deep and boundless that they submerge one in the infinity of their contents. Such statements outlive the centuries and millennia as samples of spiritual perfection at the height of the seventh level. These processes of thinking make their way through challenges, mistakes and errors; only the rare mind manages to succeed in passing through this labyrinth.

We remain still in experimental research in the field of sensually perceived language where the harmony of these language forms and processes of thinking is infringed upon by strong sensual perception. Sensual perception, as an alienating process of thinking, not only infringes upon the harmony of speech as an integral phenomenon of being, but also destroys its own unified whole because some parts and their qualities do nor represent qualities of the whole. As a result the object of research does not promote the whole, but destroys it. Not noticing this researchers continue deepening the errors as sensually perceived language divides into ever smaller parts. The phenomenon of language cannot exist independently, as the purpose of language forms is the process of thinking, but not quite the reverse: the process of thinking can exist without language forms. Moreover, the process of thinking "lives" its own complete life, so that when it is materialized in language forms the infinity of the process of thinking in speech is lost. Further divisions into parts which already destroy the whole becomes senseless, as it is a progressively deeper withdrawal into a labyrinth of errors. For this reason the stratification of language levels in linguistics is a most important error, as if the language forms of speech can exist independently. Hence the phonetic, word-building, lexical and morphological levels of language especially have no right to independent existence.

Here the main formal conclusion has been made by Gegel who asserted that "the content is indifferent to the language forms. "Linguistic research is of interest only at the level of syntactic problems, but cannot pass at the level of speech into the synthesis of a "microcosm" of being. Thus, comprehension of the truth of the "microcosm" of life is similar to the Absolute Truth of Being. It is neither phonetic, word-building, lexical, nor the morphological levels of language.

Hence, language culture, as well as common culture, bears in itself the image of the synchronous level of development that appears in the erroneous working out of norms of language and common norms of society. However, sooner or later these norms will collapse and be destroyed, and must be worked out anew. This will continue until not only a group of people, but the large part of society comes to the spiritual, eternal, immutable truth found at the metaphysical level.

Berkeley, G. Treatise on the Principles of Human Knowledge (Moscow: The Publishing House "Mysl", 1978), p. 214.

Gegel G.V.F. A Science of Logic. Volume 2 (Moscow: The Publishing house "Mysl", 1971), p. 83.

Karimov U.L. and Karimova Z.L. Development of the Analytical Thinking Skill of Students on the Basis of Teaching Language: Methodical Recommendations (Tashkent: 1996), p. 26

Minsky M. Wit and Logic of the Cognitive Unconscious: The Cognitive Aspects of Language (Moscow: "Progress", 1988), p. 284

Sri Srimad A.Ch. Bhagavad-Gita Bhaktivedanta Svami Prabhupada (Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, 1990), p. 208

Tolstoy A.N. On the play At the Bottom by M. Gorky. Collected works Volume 10. (Moscow: State Publishing House of the Art Literature, 1961), p. 7.