Introducing the brain: language and invention (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, June 25, 2020, 18:29 (1401 days ago) @ dhw

QUOTE: "The ability I mean is that of hypothetical thinking...This is the key to sustained innovation and creativity, and to the development of art, science and technology. Archaic humans, in all probability, didn’t possess it. The static nature of their lifestyle suggests that they lived in the present, their attention locked on to the world, and their behaviour driven by habit and environmental stimuli. In the course of their daily activities, they might accidentally hit on a better way of doing something, but they didn’t actively think up innovations for themselves.”

dhw: I find this last remark extraordinarily presumptuous. How do you “accidentally” design a tool or a weapon? But I would suggest that the ability to innovate was probably used only for purposes of survival, and even today this ability is largely used for the same purpose, extended to encompass improvements to our means of survival, and including ways of destroying our enemies. I do agree, however, that “hypothetical thinking” has enabled us to go far, far beyond the requirements of survival. To what extent language inspires thought and thought inspires language I do not know. But there is no doubt that we give names to our discoveries and inventions – the names do not precede them! See below.

Note the bold. I know I think in language. Previously, I think new words were sounded out, not in thought, except now in highly technical studies words are invented to fit what is being described. Onomatopoeia applies early on. I think early homos lived in the present, but, I agree, they certainly invented

DAVID: The author notes the stasis after arrival of our large-sized brain and the beginning of real use of concepts once usable language appeared. The large brain provided a space for complex spoken language and later writing and reading language.

dhw: Stasis here is just another way of saying that for a long time, nobody came up with any new ideas. As regards language, I’d be inclined to say that concepts give rise to language and in turn language gives rise to concepts in an on-going, interactive process.

I agree with this bold in current times, not 70,000 years ago when language really started to develop.

Your 'stasis' is the stasis I recognize. Big brain but nothing new for quite while until the owners learned to use it.