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Author: Derek Bickerton Publisher: Harvard University Press ISBN: 067472853X Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 296
Book Description
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.
Author: Derek Bickerton Publisher: Harvard University Press ISBN: 067472853X Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 296
Book Description
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.
Author: Jeffrey Kahan Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1135973652 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 385
Book Description
Is King Lear an autonomous text, or a rewrite of the earlier and anonymous play King Leir? Should we refer to Shakespeare’s original quarto when discussing the play, the revised folio text, or the popular composite version, stitched together by Alexander Pope in 1725? What of its stage variations? When turning from page to stage, the critical view on King Lear is skewed by the fact that for almost half of the four hundred years the play has been performed, audiences preferred Naham Tate's optimistic adaptation, in which Lear and Cordelia live happily ever after. When discussing King Lear, the question of what comprises ‘the play’ is both complex and fragmentary. These issues of identity and authenticity across time and across mediums are outlined, debated, and considered critically by the contributors to this volume. Using a variety of approaches, from postcolonialism and New Historicism to psychoanalysis and gender studies, the leading international contributors to King Lear: New Critical Essays offer major new interpretations on the conception and writing, editing, and cultural productions of King Lear. This book is an up-to-date and comprehensive anthology of textual scholarship, performance research, and critical writing on one of Shakespeare's most important and perplexing tragedies. Contributors Include: R.A. Foakes, Richard Knowles, Tom Clayton, Cynthia Clegg, Edward L. Rocklin, Christy Desmet, Paul Cantor, Robert V. Young, Stanley Stewart and Jean R. Brink
Author: LIT Verlag Publisher: LIT Verlag ISBN: 3643962185 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 346
Book Description
The Arctic is often associated with pristine wilderness, natural resources, and climate change. Yet settlements and infrastructure, which have received less attention, play a significant role in Arctic environments. Extractive industries, military activities, and scientific undertakings have driven the expansion of infrastructures. This book presents current research on Northern towns and Arctic and Subarctic infrastructure. It examines historical developments, the shaping of environments, sustainability, future planning, and associated living conditions, mainly from a social science perspective. Doris Friedrich is a Senior Fellow at the Arctic Institute and a PhD student at the University of Vienna, focusing on Arctic human-environment relations. Markus Hirnsperger holds an MA and PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology and Slavic Studies. His research interests include history and nationalism. Stefan Bauer works as storage manager at the Weltmuseum Wien. His research (MA) focused on Indigenous minorities in Russia (culture, economy, and politics).
Author: Henry Beston Publisher: ISBN: Category : Birds Languages : en Pages : 298
Book Description
Long recognized as a classic of American nature writing. This chronicle of a solitary year spent on a Cape Cod beach was written in longhand at the kitchen table, in a little room overlooking the North Atlantic and the dunes. In 1964, the Cape Cod house was officially proclaimed a National Literary Landmark. In 1978, a massive winter storm swept it off its foundation and out to sea.
Author: William Shakespeare Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 524
Book Description
[V.23] The second part of Henry the Fourth. 1940.--[v.24-25] The sonnets. 1924.--[v.26] Troilus and Cressida. 1953.--[v.27] The life and death of King Richard the Second. 1955.
Author: James A. W. Heffernan Publisher: Yale University Press ISBN: 0300195583 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 439
Book Description
In works of Western literature ranging from Homer’s Odyssey to Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? the giving and taking of hospitality is sometimes pleasurable, but more often perilous. Heffernan traces this leitmotiv through the history of our greatest writings, including Christ’s Last Supper, Macbeth’s murder of his royal guest, and Camus’s short story on French colonialism in Arab Algeria. By means of such examples and many more, this book considers what literary hosts, hostesses, and guests do to as well as for each other. In doing so, it shows how often treachery rends the fabric of trust that hospitality weaves.
Author: Derek Bickerton
Author: Derek Bickerton
Author: Jeffrey Kahan
Author: LIT Verlag
Author: William Shakespeare
Author: Henry Beston
Author: David Masson
Author: William Shakespeare
Author: Christopher Marlowe
Author: William Shakespeare
Author: James A. W. Heffernan