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RDATE:20331106T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:America/New_York EDT END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20340312T030000 RDATE:20341105T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:America/New_York EDT END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20350311T030000 RDATE:20351104T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:America/New_York EDT END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20360309T030000 RDATE:20361102T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:America/New_York EDT END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20370308T030000 RDATE:20371101T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:America/New_York EDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:d9e33f73c08e8e3058cc09e8b3cb5ba5 CATEGORIES:What is cognitive science?:Fall 2012 CREATED:20151203T141543 SUMMARY:On Trying to Understand Discussion of the Evolution of Human Language, Conversation, Reasoning, and/or Argument LOCATION:Princeton University\, Department of Philosophy DESCRIPTION:Did human language, conversation, reasoning, and/or argument evolve?\nThe a nswers to these question depend in part on how “evolution” is to be\nunders tood. Does evolution in the relevant sense involve a gradual process\nor ca n it be abrupt? Does it have to involve selection of some sort and, if\nso, is the relevant issue about selection an issue about biological selection, \nor does it include social selection, or even individual selection?\nIs th e question about the evolution of human language a question about\nthe evol ution of the “language faculty” or about the evolution of particular\nlangu ages, dialects, idiolects, or “i-languages”?\nChomsky has argued that human languages differ from nonhuman animal\nsystems of communication in several respects, especially including that\nhuman languages but not animal system s can exhibit a kind of “discrete\ninfinity,” a recursive aspect so that se ntences can occur in larger sentences,\nnoun phrases in larger sentences, e tc. There would seem to be no way in\nwhich a the system of discrete infini ty could gradually evolve.\nChomsky speculates that a certain heritable bra in modification occurred in\none or a few early humans giving them a capaci ty for discrete infinity in\ntheir thinking which game them a advantage in coping with the\nenvironment and each other compared to proto humans lackin g that\ncapacity. Natural selection might then have favored these humans ov er\nothers. Although the process leading to the capacity for discrete infin ity\nwould then not have been a gradual process, there would gradually be\n more and more humans with that capacity and fewer and fewer\nproto-humans w ithout it. In that case the capacity did not gradually\nevolve, but the num ber of humans with that capacity did gradually evolve.\nIn this scenario, p roto-humans would presumably have had systems of\ncommunication lacking dis crete infinity, systems involving speech and\ngesture. A further speculatio n might be that the acquisition of such\nsystems admitting of discrete infi nity would have been enough to endow\nhumans with the faculty of human lang uage. Suppose that was the case\nand suppose further that the selective adv antage that humans had over\nproto-humans was due to the capacity for more complex individual\nthinking and planning, rather than being due to increas ed communication\nabilities. If so, the capacity for human linguistic commu nication would be\nwhat Steven J. Gould called a “spandrel,” a useful bypro duct of natural\nselection.\nI am going to discuss these and other issues a bout the possible evolution of\nhuman language, conversation, reasoning, an d argument, trying to get\nclearer in what sort of evolution might be relev ant and what kind of\nevidence there might be for various views on these to pics.\n\n\n X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:
Did human language, conversation, reasoning, and/or argument evolve?
The answers to these question depend in part on how “evolution&rdqu
o; is to be
understood. Does evolution in the relevant sense involve a
gradual process
or can it be abrupt? Does it have to involve selectio
n of some sort and, if
so, is the relevant issue about selection an is
sue about biological selection,
or does it include social selection, o
r even individual selection?
Is the question about the evolution of h
uman language a question about
the evolution of the “language fa
culty” or about the evolution of particular
languages, dialects,
idiolects, or “i-languages”?
Chomsky has argued that hum
an languages differ from nonhuman animal
systems of communication in s
everal respects, especially including that
human languages but not ani
mal systems can exhibit a kind of “discrete
infinity,” a r
ecursive aspect so that sentences can occur in larger sentences,
noun
phrases in larger sentences, etc. There would seem to be no way in
whi
ch a the system of discrete infinity could gradually evolve.
Chomsky
speculates that a certain heritable brain modification occurred in
one
or a few early humans giving them a capacity for discrete infinity in
their thinking which game them a advantage in coping with the
environ
ment and each other compared to proto humans lacking that
capacity. Na
tural selection might then have favored these humans over
others. Alth
ough the process leading to the capacity for discrete infinity
would t
hen not have been a gradual process, there would gradually be
more and
more humans with that capacity and fewer and fewer
proto-humans witho
ut it. In that case the capacity did not gradually
evolve, but the num
ber of humans with that capacity did gradually evolve.
In this scenar
io, proto-humans would presumably have had systems of
communication la
cking discrete infinity, systems involving speech and
gesture. A furth
er speculation might be that the acquisition of such
systems admitting
of discrete infinity would have been enough to endow
humans with the
faculty of human language. Suppose that was the case
and suppose furth
er that the selective advantage that humans had over
proto-humans was
due to the capacity for more complex individual
thinking and planning,
rather than being due to increased communication
abilities. If so, th
e capacity for human linguistic communication would be
what Steven J.
Gould called a “spandrel,” a useful byproduct of natural
s
election.
I am going to discuss these and other issues about the poss
ible evolution of
human language, conversation, reasoning, and argumen
t, trying to get
clearer in what sort of evolution might be relevant a
nd what kind of
evidence there might be for various views on these top
ics.