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by: Terrence W. Deacon Introduction Since Darwin’s time, the human language capacity has been a perennially cited paragon of extreme complexity that defies the explanatory powers of natural selection. And it is not just critics of Darwinism who have argued that this most distinctive human capacity is problematic. Alfred Russel Wallace—the co-discoverer of natural selection theory and Continue reading On the Human: Rethinking the natural selection of human language by Mark Stoneking As a molecular anthropologist, my research involves using genetic data to address questions of anthropological interest about the origins, history, migration, structure, and relationships of human populations. I frequently am asked to give lectures to nonspecialist audiences on insights from genetics into human evolution, and invariably during the ensuing discussion period the viewpoint Continue reading Does Culture Prevent or Drive Human Evolution? by Raymond Tallis Does evolution explain our behaviour? The short answer is: No. And you may well concur with that answer but ‘out there’ there is an increasing constituency of thinkers claiming quite otherwise. Along with the claims that the brain explains the mind and activity in one bit of brain or another corresponds Continue reading Does Evolution Explain Our Behaviour? by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy I am an anthropologist and primate sociobiologist who seeks to understand, step by Darwinian step, how apes could have evolved to imagine and care about what the lives of others might be like. I believe that such questing for inter-subjective engagement laid the foundations for significant later developments such as language and Continue reading How Humans Became Such Other-Regarding Apes by: Timothy Lenoir Most researchers agree that there is no reason in principle why we will not eventually develop conscious machines that rival or surpass human intelligence. If we are crossing to a new era of the posthuman, how have we gotten here? And how should we understand the process? Cultural theorists have addressed the topic Continue reading Contemplating Singularity by Joe Carroll Massive Modularity vs. Cognitive Flexibility Evolutionists insist that genes constrain and direct human behavior. Cultural constructivists counter that culture, embodied in the arts, shapes human experience. Both these claims are true, but some evolutionists and some cultural constructivists have mistakenly regarded them as mutually exclusive (D. S. Wilson, “Evolutionary”). Some evolutionists have either ignored Continue reading The Adaptive Function of Literature and the Other Arts Thanks so much to everyone who has written in! There is a lot of food for thought in your postings, far too much to be digested in a short conclusion. I shall try to absorb them in the future rather than give half-baked comments now. One tiny correction: several readers picked up on the “middle-class” in Continue reading Commercial Genome Reading: follow-up by Ian Hacking “What will commercial genome-reading – from cheap 23andMe to costly but complete Knome – do to middle-class conceptions of personal identity?” Say the name Knome out loud, not in one syllable but as two:– “know-me.” The corporation unabashedly offers “Know thyself” at the masthead of its Home Page. I accept the implied invitation to connect Continue reading Commercial genome reading |
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