Interesting podcast called Science & the City from the New York Academy of Sciences.
Nobel Laureate and neurobiologist Gerald Edelman, psychologist Paul Ekman, and anthropologist/neuroscientist Terrence Deacon tell us how Charles Darwin has influenced science and their personal careers.
One reply on “Evolution, Language and Neuroscience”
Thanks for the link! It reminds me that I should actually read both the Origin of Species and the Descent of Man.
There are examples now of other organisms that have tool-making and language (I am reminded of Susan Savage-Rumbaugh’s work on Bonobos), which were once thought only “gifted” to humans. It’s interesting that “language has become our environment” and as we discussed in class earlier, it’s not that we’re “better” having it, but that first change constrained the way the evolution of language further took shape (cognitive demands), making the case for impossible languages and impossible cultures. Despite all the variation, there are ultimately some forms that possibly could not take place.