Abstract
This paper is divided into three sections. In the first section we offer a retooling of some traditional concepts, namely icons and symbols, which allows us to describe an evolutionary continuum of communication systems. The second section consists of an argument from theoretical biology. In it we explore the advantages and disadvantages of phenotypic plasticity. We argue that a range of the conditions that selectively favor phenotypic plasticity also favor a nongenetic transmission system that would allow for the inheritance of acquired characters. The first two sections are independent, the third depends on both of them. In it we offer an argument that human natural languages have just the features required of an ideal transmission mechanism under the conditions described in section 2.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bonner, J. T.: 1980, The Evolution of Culture in Animals, Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.
Boyd, R. & Richerson, P. J.: 1985, Culture and the Evolutionary Process, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Bradshaw, A. D.: 1965, ‘Evolutionary Significance of Phenotypic Plasticity in Plants’, Advanced Genetics 13, 115–55.
Brandon, R. N.: 1978, ‘Adaptation and Evolutionary Theory’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 9, 181–206.
Brandon, R. N.: 1981a, ‘Biological Teleology: Questions and Explanations’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 12, 91–105.
Brandon, R. N.: 1981b, ‘A Structural Description of Evolutionary Theory’, in Asquith, P. and Giere, R. (eds.), PSA 1980, Philosophy of Science Association, East Lansing, Michigan Vol. II.
Brandon, R. N.: (forthcoming), ‘Directional Biases in Inheritance: the insufficience of Darwin's three conditions’.
Brown, R.: 1973, A First Language: The Early Stages, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Cavalli-Sforza, L. L. and Feldman, M. W.: 1981,A Theory of Cultural Evolution: Cultural Transmission, Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.
Chomsky, N.: 1965, Aspects of Theory of Syntax, The M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Chomsky, N.: 1972, Language and Mind, Enlarged Edition, Hartcourt Bruce Jovanovich, Inc., New York, N.Y.
Davidson, D.: 1965, ‘Theories of Meaning and Learnable Languages’, in Y. Bar-Hillel (ed.), Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science, Proceeding of the 1964 International Congress, North-Holland, Amsterdam, pp. 383–94.
Davidson, D.: 1967, ‘Truth and Meaning’, Synthese 17, 304–23.
Goodman, N.: 1968, Languages of Art, Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis, Indiana.
Goodman, N.: 1970, ‘Seven Structures on Similarity’, in Foster, L. and Swanson, J. W. (eds.), Experience and Theory, University of Massachusetts Press, Boston, Mass.
Griffin, D. R.: 1976, The Question of Animal Awareness, Rockefeller University Press, New York, N.Y.
Hornstein, N. & Lightfoot, D.: 1981, Explanation in Linguistics, Longmans and Co., London.
Levins, R.: 1968, Evolution in Changing Environments, Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.
Lewontin, R. C.: 1978, ‘Adaptation’, Scientific American 239, 212–30.
Lorenz, K.: 1977, Behind the Mirror: A Search for a Natural History of Human Knowledge, Methuen, London.
Mayr, E.: 1976, Evolution and the Diversity of Life, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Pulliam, H. R. and Dunford, C.: 1980, Programmed to Learn, Columbia University Press, New York, N.Y.
Quine, W. V.: 1960, Word and Object, The M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Roughgarden, J.: 1979, Theory of Population Genetics and Evolutionary Ecology: An Introduction, MacMillan Publishing Co., New York, N.Y.
Smith, W. J.: 1977, The Behavior of Communicating, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Wilson, E. O.: 1975, Sociobiology: the New Synthesis, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Wimsatt, W.: 1968, ‘Randomness and Perceived-Randomness in Evolutionary Biology’, Synthese 43, 287–329.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
We would like to thank Robert Boyd, Noam Chomsky, Gerald Feinberg, Ken Glander, David Hull, Ernst Mayr, John Rawls, Peter Richerson, william Wimsatt and Paul Ziff for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. Special thanks go to Doug Stalker who was instrumental in both the origins and development of this work.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Brandon, R.N., Hornstein, N. From icons to symbols: Some speculations on the origins of language. Biol Philos 1, 169–189 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00142900
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00142900