Do you have an inner monologue? By this I do not mean a book or any other text with the narrative media known from film, television and German lessons, in which a person’s mental processes are framed as an imaginary conversation. I mean a true inner monologue, a voice narrating your life — a voice inside your head that is constantly talking about what you’re thinking and what’s happening to you (“There you go, my three problems”).
If you have one, I can only hope my description is somewhat accurate, because I don’t have one. And I must admit, I always thought there was no such thing. At least since then in recent years There have been many viral waves of online discussions on this topic – I suppose now only again – I doubt my former conviction. But deep down, I’m still not entirely sure if people with an inner voice in storytelling are just imagining it. But what is the difference between the real voice in your head and the imaginary voice in your head?
How do you check that? This is one of the reasons why, since the second half of the nineteenth century, most philosophers have stopped speaking of the soul and ideas as if they were mountains or stones: you cannot look inside people’s heads. And you can’t listen to their heads either. The only way to check if people have an inner monologue is to ask them about it and hope they aren’t lying.
“Alcohol buff. Troublemaker. Introvert. Student. Social media lover. Web ninja. Bacon fan. Reader.”
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