CategoryEvolution
Do We Need Language To Think? Some Researchers Say No
At one time, it was strictly a philosophical issue but then neuroscientists got involvedA controversy about whether we need language to think pits two MIT scholars against each other: Noam Chomsky (yes) vs. Evelina Fedorenko (no). For a long time, it was only a philosophical issue: Plato saw thinking as a conversation with oneself. If you don’t form concepts into words are you really thinking? Chomsky agreed. But later, neuroscientists like Fedorenko got involved, offering some research findings. Last summer at the New York Times, science writer Carl Zimmer reported, When Dr. Fedorenko began this work in 2009, studies had found that the same brain regions required for language were also active when people reasoned or carried out arithmetic. But Dr. Fedorenko and other researchers discovered that this overlap was a mirage. Part Read More ›
Can Brain Structure Alone Explain Why We Have Language?
How human languages came to exist is an unsolved mystery within science
Billboard Chris Asks a Sharp Question About “Evolution”
On a logical basis, Elston’s critique is unanswerable — but logic no longer has the status that it once did. Nor does evidence.
At Big Think: Getting Stoned Shaped the Modern Mind
Cognitive neuroscientist Bobby Azarian sees human civilization forming something like “the brain of Gaia” in a cosmos that is becoming increasingly conscious
How Will Media Address Growing Doubts About Darwin?
In the water flea study, the doubts sound as if they are coming from inside the house. One news story sheds light on a reporting strategy
Decade-Long Study: No Evidence Found for Darwinian Evolution
After many generations, water fleas showed no evidence of changing genetically to adapt to their environment, as the theory would predict
Darwin’s Bold Bluff: He Never Demonstrated His Evolution Theory
He often promised he would demonstrate it. But, as Robert Shedinger shows, when he didn’t, his supporters decided to just act like he had
Are There Rules Governing Which Animals Are Smart?
A neurologist makes a case for the importance of warm-bloodedness but cold-blooded reptiles can be learn surprisingly quickly
Researchers: Living Cells’ Cognition Drives Evolution
“Natural selection is cognitive selection,” they say, arguing that cells exhibit meaning and purpose, contrary to Darwinian evolution theories
Did the Wily Neanderthal Save Time While Preparing Meals?
An enterprising archaeology team tried cooking birds using methods only available to Neanderthals — and learned some things, including how to avoid burned fingers
When Darwinism becomes a fashionable doomsday cult…
Like all cults, it can make otherwise intelligent people begin to sound rather strange, even precarious
Why Does a Brainless Sponge Have a Toolkit for a Nervous System?
A neuroscientist wrestles with the question of where the kit arose? From the one-celled life forms that preceded the sponge?
How Do We Know If Something in Nature Is Purposeful?
Jonathan Bartlett considered the question recently in Cambridge’s Behavioral and Brain Sciences journal
An “Evolutionary” Analysis of Childhood Provides No New Knowledge
Archeologist Brenna Hassett offers to explain the evolution of childhood and grandmothers — but, unfortunately, ends up providing no real insight
If Humans Were Just Animals, We Would Not Help Animals
Whether we like it or not, the gulf fixed between humans and other animals is what makes it possible for us to reject cruelty to animals
Was Darwinian Philosopher Daniel Dennett the End of an Era?
Dennett’s image of the human mind as a user-illusion was very fashionable but it never made any sense
Are the New Atheists Losing Their “Cool” Quotient?
And taking Darwinism with them? A look at what’s happened in the last two decades would seem to suggest that
Origin of Language: Still a Mystery, Despite All We Know Now
We aren’t even sure which is the world’s oldest spoken language, though Hebrew, Arabic, and Chinese have impressively long histories