More than Nature Needs

Language, Mind, and Evolution

Derek Bickerton

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Hardback

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English

Harvard Uni.Press Academi
13 January 2014

Historical & comparative linguistics; Social, group or collective psychology; Mathematics & Sciences

"The human mind is an unlikely evolutionary adaptation. How did humans acquire cognitive capacities far more powerful than anything a hunting-and-gathering primate needed to survive? Alfred Russel Wallace, co-founder with Darwin of evolutionary theory, saw humans as ""divine exceptions"" to natural selection. Darwin thought use of language might have shaped our sophisticated brains, but his hypothesis remained an intriguing guess--until now. Combining state-of-the-art research with forty years of writing and thinking about language evolution, Derek Bickerton convincingly resolves a crucial problem that both biology and the cognitive sciences have hitherto ignored or evaded.

What evolved first was neither language nor intelligence--merely normal animal communication plus displacement. That was enough to break restrictions on both thought and communication that bound all other animals. The brain self-organized to store and automatically process its new input, words. But words, which are inextricably linked to the concepts they represent, had to be accessible to consciousness. The inevitable consequence was a cognitive engine able to voluntarily merge both thoughts and words into meaningful combinations. Only in a third phase could language emerge, as humans began to tinker with a medium that, when used for communication, was adequate for speakers but suboptimal for hearers.

Starting from humankind's remotest past, More than Nature Needs transcends nativist thesis and empiricist antithesis by presenting a revolutionary synthesis--one that instead of merely repeating ""nature and nurture"" clichés shows specifically and in a principled manner how and why the synthesis came about."

By: Derek Bickerton
Imprint: Harvard Uni.Press Academi
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 156mm, Spine: 33mm
Weight: 635g
ISBN: 9780674724907
ISBN 10: 0674724909
Pages: 280
Publication Date: 13 January 2014
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Reviews for More than Nature Needs: Language, Mind, and Evolution

Bickerton is the grand seigneur of the topic of language evolution among the linguists. He writes so bloody well that one turns green with envy. He is a mastermind of the field, period.--Eors Szathmary, Professor Of Biology In The Department Of Plant Taxonomy & Ecology, Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest