Category: language

On pulling a cosmos out of a non-existent hat . . .

This morning, CH has by implication raised the issue that has been hotly debated recently: getting a cosmos out of “nothing.” I thought it would be helpful to headline my comment: ______________ >>  . . . “Something from nothing” is always problematic. Now, I know I know, here is Ethan Siegel of Science Blogs in… more

NOTICE: On the “Gish Gallop” false accusation tactic and fallacious dodge

In a recent comment clipped by GP in the Jerad thread, Keiths has used the rhetorically dismissive term “Gish Gallop.” Let me cite: KS: . . . with gpuccio it is sometimes possible to zero in on the crux of a disagreement. You can’t do that with Gish Gallopers. Now, as I will shortly show,… more

The wrong way to understand the origin of human language

This theory gets us somewhere only if we redefine the problem. That is, if we focus away from complexity of human thought and language and toward which techniques were chosen first. more

Semantics: Did Francis Bacon ever use the term “critical thinking”?

It pays to ask: Our fearless readers traced the term “intelligent design” back to the mid-1760s more

Is the dismissal by asserting “fallacy of personal incredulity” itself a fallacy?

Yesterday, UD’s News announced a free chart of fallacies. I thought, oh, yay, let’s download. But, once I began to look at the chart, I noticed that it presented Plato, Socrates and Aristotle in a way that seemed to mock the orthodox Christian triune concept of God. (Did it ever strike the creator of the… more

Was Anders Breivik “not-insane”?

Other psychiatrists now find Norway massacre gunman Anders Behring Breivik ‘not insane’ – prison now possible “The experts’ main conclusion is that the accused, Anders Behring Breivik, is not considered to have been psychotic at the time of the actions on July 22, 2011,” the Oslo district court said in a statement which reopens the… more

Reader traces term “intelligent Designer” to 1765

The author of 250 years ago follows the older practice of capitalizing all nouns. more

Human evolution: Why can everyone learn Portuguese?

“It’s perfectly obvious that there is some genetic factor that distinguishes humans from other animals and that it is language-specific.” more

Language: The Power of Babel

When it comes to understanding language, evolutionary biology is apparently a waste of time. The Tower of Babel is more useful. more

Difference between humans and animals has been identified?

And then there is the question of whether to believe Everett on the evidence and many colleagues clearly do not. more

From The Best Schools: US prez hopeful Rick Santorum’s religious language

“Why, then, as an atheist, am I not offended?” more

Human evolution: Evolution of language is mind, not biology, linguist writes

“The native languages here in the Pacific Northwest (USA and British Columbia) may have the second most complex sound systems and they also are very far from South Africa.” more

Evolution of language study savaged in Science: “suboptimal data, biased methodology, and unjustified assumptions.”

The analogy from language to biology is flawed anyway. Biology runs on the many life or death rules of biochemistry; language doesn’t operate under such severe constraints. more

Tom Bethell on Noam Chomsky’s dissent from Darwin

“Others within the academy who must deal with Darwinism may find themselves in the same position but less willing to say so openly.” more

Where materialism fails: Grappling with the power of exceptional minds

The reviewer doesn’t convey a sense that the author grapples with the origin of the mental capacity for learning many languages, beyond identifying prompts whose value depends on an undiscovered country. more

It never dies: Apes can’t talk yet they can explain language?

“That is the suggestion of a study which found chimps link sounds and levels of brightness, … ” more

The secret to good science writing today is never to ask the obvious questions …

If chimp handwaving is the origin of language, why didn’t hand-waving baby chimps go on to learn one? Why do human infants learn a language even if they are born without hands? more

When Bedtime for Bonzo was not a comedy

And didn’t star Ronald Reagan opposite a chimp. On July 8, a documentary on the fate of Nim opens in U.S. theatres (trailer). In “Project Nim: A chimp raised like a human” (New Scientist 4 July 2011), Rowan Hooper tackles the question of why: What on earth were they thinking of? Nim was put in… more

Information: Can humans find meaning in dolphin sounds?

Here’s a project to test that: more

Urgent: This engineer needs thought engineering

In the University of Houston alumni mag Parameters (Spring 2011) , vision researcher Haluk Ogmen says: Computers beat the brain in many tasks, like large number multiplication and database searches,” he said. “But there are other tasks that no computer even comes close to what we can do. In the area of navigation, the most… more

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