Different in degree or kind (Introduction)

by xeno6696 , Sonoran Desert, Saturday, December 21, 2013, 19:13 (3990 days ago) @ dhw

Matt, I agree with you that our form of language was a prime influence in our development, though I wonder which came first: the thoughts or the mechanisms involved in our sound making, without which we could not have expressed the thoughts to others. The origin of human language remains as mysterious as the origin of life and the origin of consciousness. Perhaps David thinks that all languages were preprogrammed into the very first cells, along with the billions of other innovations, lifestyles etc. that God crammed in there. We do know, however, that cells communicate, and cell communities communicate, and our fellow animals communicate, so perhaps it was a matter of intelligent cell communities coming up with innovations to meet the new requirements of the ground-dwelling primate. Convergence would see to it that different cell communities in different environments would devise similar solutions.-We obviously don't know how language originated, but if we note that captive gorillas, (koko, in particular) were able to develop a vocabulary of about 2000 words, we have some kind of an idea that the ability to learn language isn't unique. What makes us unique is quite simply (to me) an issue of instinct. Other ape communities don't rely on other members quite as intricately as we do--we're more social, not less. -It isn't a stretch to say that we have an instinct for language, and that I think it was this instinct, this desire to more effectively communicate that allowed us to develop constant word-symbols over time, passed on via music and culture.

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\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"