The Symbolic Species Evolved

Scientific considerations about the origin of humanity might not be entirely new. However, the articles in this volume present a spectrum/variety of theoretical and disciplinary perspectives which no doubt calls attention and dares to present the span of the problem. The reader is inspired to continuously push and re-think ways of thinking about the themes, instead of fixing and unequivocalizing and is forced to acknowledge a diversity of angles and the need of merging different approaches to achieve further insights on the central theme. The volume succinctly distils frontline research within different subfields by compiling contributions from widely acknowledged academics.

Résumé

This anthology is a compilation of the best contributions from Symbolic Species Conferences I, II (which took place in 2006, 2007).

In 1997 the American anthropologist Terrence Deacon published The Symbolic Species: The Coevolution of Language and the Brain. The book is widely considered a seminal work in the subject of evolutionary cognition. However, Deacons book was the first step further steps have had to be taken. The proposed anthology is such an important associate.

The contributions are written by a wide variety of scholars each with a unique view on evolutionary cognition and the questions raised by Terrence Deacon - emergence in evolution, the origin of language, the semiotic 'missing link', Peirce's semiotics in evolution and biology, biosemiotics, evolutionary cognition, Baldwinian evolution, the neuroscience of linguistic capacities as well as phylogeny of the homo species, primatology, embodied cognition and knowledge types.

Contenu

Introduction - searching the missing links.- Part I: The Biosemiotic Connection.- 1. Towards a semiotic cognitive science: why neither the phenomenological nor computational approaches are adequate.- 2. The Symbolic Species hypothesis revisited.- 3. Peirce and Deacon on meaning and the evolution of language.- 4. Semiosis beyond signs. On a two or three missing links on the way to human beings.- Part II: The Prehistoric and Comparative Connection.- 5. The natural history of intentionality. A biosemiotic approach.- 6. The evolution of learning to communicate: Avian model for the missing link.- 7. From parsing actions to understanding intentions.- 8. New non-Linnaean, neo-cladistic nomenclature and classification conventions exemplified by recent and fossil hominids.- 9. ¬¬¬¬The tripod effect: Coevolution of cooperation, cognition and communication.- Part III: The Cognitive and Anthropological Connection.- 10. Language as a repository of tacit knowledge.- 11. Levels of immersion and embodiment.- 12. Emerging symbols.- 13. Gender in innovative techno fantasies.- Epilogue.- 14. New perspectives.- Index.