This paper aims to explore a potential connection between two hypotheses recently put forward in the context of language evolution. One hypothesis argues that some human-specific change in the hominin brain developmental program habilitated the neuronal workspace that enabled “cognitive modernity” to unfold, also resulting in our globularized braincase. The other argues that the cultural niche resulting from our self-domestication favored the emergence of natural languages. In this article we document numerous links between the genetic changes we have claimed may (...) have brought about globularization and neural crest cells, which have been claimed to explain the constellation of distinctive traits found in all domesticated mammals. If these links turn out to be as robust as we think they are, globularization and self-domestication may well be closely related phenomena in the context of human evolution. (shrink)

Together with language, music is perhaps the most distinctive behavioral trait of the human species. Different hypotheses have been proposed to explain why only humans perform music and how this ability might have evolved in our species. In this paper, we advance a new model of music evolution that builds on the self-domestication view of human evolution, according to which the human phenotype is, at least in part, the outcome of a process similar to domestication in other mammals, triggered by (...) the reduction in reactive aggression responses to environmental changes. We specifically argue that self-domestication can account for some of the cognitive changes, and particularly for the behaviors conducive to the complexification of music through a cultural mechanism. We hypothesize four stages in the evolution of music under self-domestication forces: (1) collective protomusic; (2) private, timbre-oriented music; (3) small-group, pitch-oriented music; and (4) collective, tonally organized music. This line of development encompasses the worldwide diversity of music types and genres and parallels what has been hypothesized for languages. Overall, music diversity might have emerged in a gradual fashion under the effects of the enhanced cultural niche construction as shaped by the progressive decrease in reactive (i.e., impulsive, triggered by fear or anger) aggression and the increase in proactive (i.e., premeditated, goal-directed) aggression. (shrink)

Recent advances in genetics and neurobiology have greatly increased the degree of variation that one finds in what is taken to provide the biological foundations of our species-specific linguistic capacities. In particular, this variation seems to cast doubt on the purportedly homogeneous nature of the language faculty traditionally captured by the concept of “Universal Grammar.” In this article we discuss what this new source of diversity reveals about the biological reality underlying Universal Grammar. Our discussion leads us to support (1) (...) certain hypotheses advanced in evolutionary developmental biology that argue for the existence of robust biological mechanisms capable of canalizing variation at different levels, and (2) a bottom-up perspective on comparative cognition. We conclude by sketching future directions for what we call “comparative biolinguistics,” specifying which experimental directions may help us succeed in this new research avenue. (shrink)

As proposed for the emergence of modern languages, we argue that modern uses of languages (pragmatics) also evolved gradually in our species under the effects of human self‐domestication, with three key aspects involved in a complex feedback loop: (a) a reduction in reactive aggression, (b) the sophistication of language structure (with emerging grammars initially facilitating the transition from physical aggression to verbal aggression); and (c) the potentiation of pragmatic principles governing conversation, including, but not limited to, turn‐taking and inferential abilities. (...) Our core hypothesis is that the reduction in reactive aggression, one of the key factors in self‐domestication processes, enabled us to fully exploit our cognitive and interactional potential as applied to linguistic exchanges, and ultimately to evolve a specific form of communication governed by persuasive reciprocity—a trait of human conversation characterized by both competition and cooperation. In turn, both early crude forms of language, well suited for verbal aggression/insult, and later more sophisticated forms of language, well suited for persuasive reciprocity, significantly contributed to the resolution and reduction of (physical) aggression, thus having a return effect on the self‐domestication processes. Supporting evidence for our proposal, as well as grounds for further testing, comes mainly from the consideration of cognitive disorders, which typically simultaneously present abnormal features of self‐domestication (including aggressive behavior) and problems with pragmatics and social functioning. While various approaches to language evolution typically reduce it to a single factor, our approach considers language evolution as a multifactorial process, with each player acting upon the other, engaging in an intense mutually reinforcing feedback loop. Moreover, we see language evolution as a gradual process, continuous with the pre‐linguistic cognitive abilities, which were engaged in a positive feedback loop with linguistic innovations, and where gene‐culture co‐evolution and cultural niche construction were the main driving forces. (shrink)

It has been suggested that language disorders can serve as real windows onto language evolution. We examine this claim in this paper. We see ourselves forced to qualify three central assumptions of the the ‘disorders-as-windows’ hypothesis. After discussing the main outcome of decades of research on the linguistic ontogeny of pathological populations, we argue that language disorders should be construed as conditions for which canalization has failed to cope fully with developmental perturbations. We conclude that a robust link exists between (...) developmental disturbances and evolutionary history that allows language disorders to be used as real windows onto the evolution of the neuronal substrate of language, and emphasize that our conclusion is more compatible with views of language evolution as the result of reorganizational changes as opposed to radically novel emergences. (shrink)

We propose that human self-domestication favored the emergence of a less aggressive phenotype in our species, more precisely phenotype prone to replace (reactive) physical aggression with verbal aggression. In turn, the (gradual) transition to verbal aggression and to more sophisticated forms of verbal behavior favored self-domestication, with the two processes engaged in a reinforcing feedback loop, considering that verbal behavior entails not only less violence and better survival, but also more opportunities to interact longer and socialize with more conspecifics, ultimately (...) enabling the emergence of more complex forms of language. Whereas in the case of self-domestication sexual selection has been proposed to work against physical aggression traits, in the case of verbal insult the selection has been proposed to work in favor of verbal aggression. The tension between these two seemingly opposing forces gets resolved/alleviated by a tendency to replace physical aggression with verbal aggression, and with verbal behavior more generally. This also helps solve the paradox of the Self Domestication Hypothesis regarding aggression, more precisely why aggression in humans has been reduced only when it comes to reactive aggression, but not when it comes to proactive aggression, the latter exhibiting an increase with the advent of modern language. We postulate that this feedback loop was particularly important during the time period before 50 kya, arguably between 200 kya and 50 kya, when humans were not fully modern, neither in terms of their skull/brain morphology and their behavior/culture, nor in terms of their self-domestication. The novelty of our approach lies (i) in giving an active role to early forms of language in interacting with self-domestication processes; (ii) in providing specific linguistic details and functions of this early stage of grammar (including insult and humor); (iii) in supplying neurobiological, ontogenetic, and clinical evidence of a link between (reactive) aggression and (reactive) verbal behavior; (iv) in identifying a variety of proxies of the earlier stages in evolution among cognitive disorders; and (v) in identifying specific points of contact and mutual reinforcement between these two processes (self-domestication and early language evolution), including reduction in physical aggression and stress/tension, as well as sexual selection. (shrink)

Language has been argued to arise, both ontogenetically and phylogenetically, from specific patterns of brain wiring. We argue that it can further be shown that core features of language processing emerge from particular phasal and cross-frequency coupling properties of neural oscillations; what has been referred to as the language ‘oscillome’. It is expected that basic aspects of the language oscillome result from genetic guidance, what we will here call the language ‘oscillogenome’, for which we will put forward a list of (...) candidate genes. We have considered genes for altered brain rhythmicity in conditions involving language deficits: autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia, specific language impairment and dyslexia. These selected genes map on to aspects of brain function, particularly on to neurotransmitter function. We stress that caution should be adopted in the construction of any oscillogenome, given the range of potential roles particular localized frequency bands have in cognition. Our aim is to propose a set of genome-to-language linking hypotheses that, given testing, would grant explanatory power to brain rhythms with respect to language processing and evolution. (shrink)

Both the music and social bonding hypothesis and the music as a credible signal hypothesis emerge as solid views of how human music and human musicality might have evolved. Nonetheless, both views could be improved with the consideration of the way in which human language might have evolved under the effects of our self-domestication.

Our commentary focuses on the interaction between Grossmann's fearful ape hypothesis (FAH) and the human self-domestication hypothesis (HSDH), also taking into account language acquisition and evolution. Although there is considerable overlap between the two hypotheses, there are also some discrepancies, and our goal is to consider the extent to which HSDH can explain the phenomena identified by FAH without invoking fearfulness as directly adaptive.

There is a research programme in linguistics that is founded on describing language as an emergent phenomenon. This paper clarifies how the core concept of emergence is deployed in this emergentist programme. We show that if one adopts the weak understandings of the concept of language emergence, the emergentist programme is not fundamentally different from the other non-emergentist research programmes in linguistics. On the other hand, if one adopts the stronger understandings of emergence then the programme would have a unique (...) character, but at the cost of some corollaries (philosophical, but not only) which the emergentist linguists would seemingly want to avoid. We show that if the emergentists accept those corollaries, the resulting hypothetical emergentist programme would be totally different from the emergentist programme in its present shape. We conclude that the emergentist programme, as it stands, should be either abandoned or reshaped in both theory and methodology. (shrink)

Language evolution resulted from changes in our biology, behavior, and culture. One source of these changes might be human self-domestication. Williams syndrome (WS) is a clinical condition with a clearly defined genetic basis and resulting in a distinctive behavioral and cognitive profile, including enhanced sociability. In this paper we show evidence that the WS phenotype can be satisfactorily construed as a hyper-domesticated human phenotype, plausibly resulting from the effect of the WS hemydeletion on selected candidates for domestication and neural crest (...) function. Specifically, we show that genes involved in animal domestication and neural crest development and function are significantly dysregulated in the blood of subjects with WS. We also discuss the consequences of this link between domestication and WS for our current understanding of language evolution. (shrink)

ResumenEn este trabajo presentamos el cálculo para la Silogística que Leibniz llamó «Regressus». En la sección primera exponemos desde la notación usada por el propio Leibniz hasta el método de producción de los modos no perfectos. En la sección segunda comparamos la «fundamentación» de la Silogística de Leibniz con la que dio Aristóteles. En la sección tercera consideramos la hipótesis de Couturat según la cual se trata de un método cuya única estrategia demostrativa es la reducción al absurdo. En la (...) sección cuarta lo presentamos como un algoritmo de producción de los modos imperfectos de la segunda y tercera figuras. Y concluimos, sección quinta, intentando hacer ver que, si se da «la vuelta» a dicho algoritmo, se obtiene un método de decisión para la Silogística con tres figuras.Palabras claveLeibniz, silogística, Historia de la LógicaAbstractIn this paper we present the calculus for Syllogistic that Leibniz named «Regressus». In the first section we will show the notation used by Leibniz and the method of production of the imperfect moods. In the second section we will compare the ground of Leibniz’s Syllogistic with Aristotle’s. In the third section we will explore Couturat’s hypothesis that holds that it is a method whose only demonstrative strategy is a reductio ad absurdum. In the fourth section we will present it as a production algorithm of the imperfect moods of second and third figures. And we will end, in the fifth section, trying to show that, if we «turn over» that algorithm, we obtain a method of decision for Syllogistic of three figures.KeywordsLeibniz; Syllogistic; History of Logic. (shrink)

ResumenEn este trabajo presentamos el cálculo para la Silogística que Leibniz llamó «Regressus». En la sección primera exponemos desde la notación usada por el propio Leibniz hasta el método de producción de los modos no perfectos. En la sección segunda comparamos la «fundamentación» de la Silogística de Leibniz con la que dio Aristóteles. En la sección tercera consideramos la hipótesis de Couturat según la cual se trata de un método cuya única estrategia demostrativa es la reducción al absurdo. En la (...) sección cuarta lo presentamos como un algoritmo de producción de los modos imperfectos de la segunda y tercera figuras. Y concluimos, sección quinta, intentando hacer ver que, si se da «la vuelta» a dicho algoritmo, se obtiene un método de decisión para la Silogística con tres figuras.Palabras claveLeibniz, silogística, Historia de la LógicaAbstractIn this paper we present the calculus for Syllogistic that Leibniz named «Regressus». In the first section we will show the notation used by Leibniz and the method of production of the imperfect moods. In the second section we will compare the ground of Leibniz’s Syllogistic with Aristotle’s. In the third section we will explore Couturat’s hypothesis that holds that it is a method whose only demonstrative strategy is a reductio ad absurdum. In the fourth section we will present it as a production algorithm of the imperfect moods of second and third figures. And we will end, in the fifth section, trying to show that, if we «turn over» that algorithm, we obtain a method of decision for Syllogistic of three figures.KeywordsLeibniz; Syllogistic; History of Logic. (shrink)

Este trabajo explora las representaciones de las mujeres en una selección de manuales escolares empleados en las escuelas paraguayas durante el período 1989-2020, con el objetivo de analizar el papel histórico atribuido a las mujeres en los relatos escolares acerca de la Guerra de la Triple Alianza. Se sostiene que a pesar del proceso de revisión del currículo escolar y la política educativa iniciado con la transición democrática en 1989 persisten las representaciones hegemónicas de las mujeres ligadas al nacionalismo, afianzando (...) los roles tradicionales de género en el marco de una sociedad patriarcal. (shrink)

Este estudio se ocupa de estrategias deterministas para jugar al Dilema del Prisionero iterado. Cada estrategia se incorpora a la tabla de un autómata de estado finito. Se estudian exhaustivamente tanto las estrategias de 4 bits como las de 16 bits. El estudio de las estrategias de 64 bits se ha hecho por medio de un Algoritmo Genético. Tanto la idea de estudiar estrategias deterministas como la de servirse de un Algoritmo Genético está en Axelrod, _The Complexity of Cooperation_. Respecto (...) a las estrategias de 4 bits, una conclusión se ha impuesto: _Tit for Tat_ no es la estrategia ganadora. Respecto a las estrategias de 16 bits, tampoco _Tit for Tat_ ha resultado ganadora. Respecto a las estrategias de 64 bits, hay que destacar el método de hacer evolucionar los cromosomas encontrados por el Algoritmo Genético confrontándolos con un conjunto de control de estrategias. También hay estrategias de 64 bits mejores que _Tit for Tat._. (shrink)

En 1981 dio a conocer Axelrod el planteamiento y los resultados de un torneo entre programas de computadora mediante el cual intentó fijar cuál es la mejor estrategia para jugar al Dilema del Prisionero iterado. Cada programa codificó una estrategia. La estrategia ganadora, según Axelrod, fue la conocida como Tit for Tat, codificada por el programa presentado por Anatol Rapoport.El trabajo de Axelrod es experimental. Por tanto, ha de ser posible su repetición por cualquiera. Este ensayo es un estudio de (...) algunos aspectos de dicho experimento. En primer lugar, de los conceptos de «torneo tipo liga» y «ganador de un torneo tipo liga». En segundo lugar, de los resultados de someter a análisis la tabla 2 de Axelrod. (shrink)

Despite its biological importance, the mechanism of formation of cutin, the polymeric matrix of plant cuticles, has not yet been fully clarified. Here, for the first time, we show the participation in the process of lipid vesicles formed by the self‐assembly of endogenous polyhydroxy fatty acids. The accumulation and fusion of these vesicles (cutinsomes) at the outer part of epidermal cell wall is proposed as the mechanism for early cuticle formation. BioEssays 30:273–277, 2008. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

In La Silogística de Aristóteles, Antonio Benítez (i) offers a critical analysis of two contemporary interpretations of Aristotle's syllogistic of assertoric propositions (Corcoran and Łukasiewicz)...

In this paper I shall address the connections between Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophy and Caribbean thought. However, I will only focus on Antonio Benítez Rojo’s essay The Repeating Island, since I have found in it the presence—or expression—of some key deleuzian and deleuzo-guattarian concepts. I will use the deleuzian concept of repetition to defend this stance, as well as to argue that one may find some of the most interesting readings of Deleuze’s texts in the work of Caribbean (...) authors such as Benítez Rojo, not only in spite of their relative understanding and lack of exegetical rigour, but rather thanks to the fact that this is, in no case, their main intention. The angle I have chosen does not intend to point out consistencies or inconsistencies in Benítez Rojo’s “appropriations” or “rewritings” of Deleuze and Guattari, for this would only keep us within the logic of the copy versus the original. Instead, this reading tries to destabilize the boundaries between philosophy and literature as well as between French and Caribbean thought. The undoing of these types of distinction intends to produce a new theatre of thought, a theatre of repetition, not of representation, in order to set up the scene for a contrapunteo between two images of thought: one deleuzian, the other Caribbean. Thus, we embark upon this journey hoping to have an encounter that promises yet another becoming to Deleuze’s philosophy. The angle I have chosen does not intend to point out consistencies or inconsistencies in Benitez Rojo’s “appropriations” or “re-writings” of Deleuze-Guattari, for this would only keep us within the logic of the copy versus the original. Instead, this reading tries to destabilize the boundaries between philosophy and literature as well as between French and Caribbean thought. The undoing of these types of distinction intends to produce a new theatre of thought, a theatre of repetition not of representation in order to set up the scene for a contrapunteo between two images of thought: one deleuzian, the other Caribbean. Thus, we embark on this journey hoping to have an encounter that promises yet another becoming of Deleuze’s philosophy. (shrink)

We propose a new interpretation of the equation E=mc² in special relativity by generalizing ideas of ontological emergence to fundamental physics. This allows us to propose that mass, as a property, can be considered to emerge from energy, using a well-known definition of weak ontological emergence. Einstein’s famous equation gains in this way a clearer philosophical interpretation, one that avoids the problems of previous attempts, and is fully consistent with the kinematic properties of special relativity, while yielding fresh insights concerning (...) the nature of mass. (shrink)

El presente artículo pretende aportar información concisa y útil acerca de un género cinematográfico sumamente apreciado por la crítica: el cine no narrativo. Para ello, en una primera parte se resaltan los fundamentos teóricos, sobre todo antropológicos, que dan a las películas no narrativas su carácter central, tanto estructural como elocutivo, como reflejo de un arte que reproduce el origen de los mitos; en una segunda parte se ofrecen ejemplos concretos de su funcionamiento con base en esos fundamentos y se (...) infieren los modos en que esas películas son recibidas por la audiencia; finalmente, se concluye cuál ha sido la influencia e importancia de este tipo de cine a lo largo de la historia y se explora el posible futuro de este tipo de cine. El método empleado es inductivo y cualitativo, por lo que la interpretación personal tiene primacía en este trabajo. (shrink)

Traducción del artículo de María Elvira Díaz-Benítez, “Dark Room aqui: um ritual de escuridão e silêncio”, publicado originalmente por la Revista Cadernos De Campo, 16, 93-112 en el año 2007. La traducción al español es de su autora.