Evolutionary Epistemology, Language and Culture: A Non-Adaptationist, Systems Theoretical Approach

ISBN-13: 9781402033940 / Angielski / Twarda / 2006 / 494 str.

N. Gontier; Nathalie Gontier; Jean Paul Van Bendegem

Opis

For the first time in history, scholars working on language and culture from within an evolutionary epistemological framework, and thereby emphasizing complementary or deviating theories of the Modern Synthesis, were brought together. Of course there have been excellent conferences on Evolutionary Epistemology in the past, as well as numerous conferences on the topics of Language and Culture. However, until now these disciplines had not been brought together into one all-encompassing conference.

Moreover, previously there never had been such stress on alternative and complementary theories of the Modern Synthesis. Today we know that natural selection and evolution are far from synonymous and that they do not explain isomorphic phenomena in the world. 'Taking Darwin seriously' is the way to go, but today the time has come to take alternative and complementary theories that developed after the Modern Synthesis, equally seriously, and, furthermore, to examine how language and culture can merit from these diverse disciplines.

As this volume will make clear, a specific inter- and transdisciplinary approach is one of the next crucial steps that needs to be taken, if we ever want to unravel the secrets of phenomena such as language and culture.

Recenzje

From the reviews:

"The audience targeted by this book includes scholars working in fields as diverse as evolutionary epistemology, philosophy of science, evolutionary anthropology, evolutionary linguistics, artificial intelligence, and cognitive science. The book is the collection of essays on evolutionary epistemology ... . highlight of the book is the many papers dedicated to computer modeling and simulation. ... Overall, this is an interesting collection of papers that addresses an interesting topic. Researchers working around the theory of EE will find the book most beneficial." (Jason Brown, The Linguist List, February, 2008)

Spis treści

Preface by the editors , Acknowledgements,Introduction to evolutionary epistemology, language and culture;Nathalie Gontier PART 1: Evolutionary Epistemology Evolutionary Epistemology: The nonadaptationist approach, Franz M. Wuketits Like cats and dogs: Radical constructivism and evolutionary epistemology,Alexander Riegler The biological boundary conditions for our classical physical world view,Olaf Diettrich Is the real world something more than the world of our experience? Relation between Neodarwinian logic, transcendental philosophy and cognitive sciences,Adrianna Wozniak Universal Darwinism and process essentialism,Derek Turner PART 2: Evolutionary Epistemology and Language Darwinism, traditional linguistics and the new Palaeolithic Continuity Theory of language evolution ,Mario Alinei The extended mind model of the origin of language and culture,Robert K. Logan From changes in the world to changes in the words, Jean-Philippe Magué Evolutionary epistemology and the origin an evolution of language: taking symbiogenesis seriously, Nathalie Gontier The self-organization of dynamic systems: modularity under scrutiny,Annemarie Peltzer-Karpf PART 3: Evolutionary Epistemology and Culture Against human nature, Tim Ingold Cognition, evolution, and sociality, Eugenia Ramirez-Goicoechea Cultural evolution, the Baldwin effect, and social norms, Jean Lachapelle, Luc Faucher and Pierre Poirier Cultural creativity and evolutionary flexibility, Kathleen Coessens Some ideas to study the evolution of mathematics, Hugo Mercier PART 4: Evolutionary Epistemology and Modelling Computer modelling as a tool for understanding language evolution,Bart de Boer Simulating the syntax and semantics of linguistic constructions about time, Joachim De Beule Evolutionarygame-theoretic semantics and its foundational status, Ahti-Veikko Pietarinen Towards a quantum evolutionary scheme: violating Bell’s inequalities in language, Diederik Aerts, Marek Czachor and Bart D’Hooghe Author Index , Subject Index