Posted: Nov 23, 2010 7:13 pm
Oh, and jodiebug -
Two things. First, every culture uses fire to prepare food (well, except the Tasmanians before they were "discovered" I think, and that's only because they abandoned it, not that they'd never used it in the first place), but cooking isn't a genetic behaviour. (And while not every culture has invented TV, I'm pretty sure members of every culture now extant have already watched it.)
Secondly, Mr. Samsa was specifically responding to me, knowing that my knowledge of psychology and neuroscience was very limited, I had even quizzed him about that repeatedly (here and on other threads as well). Jeez, that was some selective reading on your part, you responded to just about every line of his you could criticise, including his joking comments to me that weren't even part of the serious discussion, but failed to notice the context of his post!
Now how about we stick to this very interesting topic and have a look at the actual arguments.
jodiebug wrote:So I think language as a FAP is not really a valid line of thought. We could try to argue that language might be a new form of "instinctual" behavior, unlike any other we know of, which requires years and years of learning before we grasp the basics and it's not automatic or triggered by any kind of stimulus, and manifests in different ways, forms and topographies... But then every single thing we do is an "instinctual" behavior. Watching tv, reading the paper, learning instruments, driving a car, etc. (And language certainly isn't a reflex either, as those stimulus-response actions are usually just electrical signals that don't even reach the brain. This would make our "language centres" rather redundant)..
Does every culture ever found watch tv and read the paper? And thanks for telling us all what reflexes are. Now we know
how knowledgeable you are and will trust your opinions.
Two things. First, every culture uses fire to prepare food (well, except the Tasmanians before they were "discovered" I think, and that's only because they abandoned it, not that they'd never used it in the first place), but cooking isn't a genetic behaviour. (And while not every culture has invented TV, I'm pretty sure members of every culture now extant have already watched it.)
Secondly, Mr. Samsa was specifically responding to me, knowing that my knowledge of psychology and neuroscience was very limited, I had even quizzed him about that repeatedly (here and on other threads as well). Jeez, that was some selective reading on your part, you responded to just about every line of his you could criticise, including his joking comments to me that weren't even part of the serious discussion, but failed to notice the context of his post!
Now how about we stick to this very interesting topic and have a look at the actual arguments.