Biology without Darwin?

Variety is both the spice of life and the basis of evolution. Varieties are what survives natural selection's perpetual test. So without variety there can be no evolution. I see that Derek Bickerton has a paper in the latest issue of Biolinguistics (PDF here). Bickerton is an interesting man who has done major work on pidgins and creoles, and he has thought hard and creatively about languag origins. He is interesting too because he combines an excellent knowledge of generative linguistics with a questioning ear. As he puts it, "Fears [are] widespread… that biolinguistics may turn out to be merely a more scientific-sounding term for generative minimalism…" [p. 73]. That is to say, he fears that biolinguistics, like generative linguistics, will continue to ignore biology and biological methods. He examines several issues in the paper, but in this posting I shall limit myself to natural selection. The same issue of Biolinguistics reviews a new book by Bickerton and the review authors imply that Bickerton agrees with them in downplaying natural selection. Nobody reading the Bickerton paper is likely to make that mistake, but it is striking the number of generative linguists who doubt or outright deny natural selection's role in language origins and functioning. If there is any presupposition I've brought to this blog and maintained throughout, it is the role of natural selection. Bickerton's paper reminds me of several assumptions that flow from this basic one: Languag...
Source: Babel's Dawn - Category: Medical Scientists Authors: Source Type: blogs