In this paper, we complement proximate or ‘how’ explanations for the origins of language, broadening our perspective to include fitness-consequences explanations, i.e. ultimate, or ‘why’ explanations. We identify theplatform of trustas a fundamental prerequisite for the development of a language-like system of symbolic communication. The platform of trust is a social niche in which cheap but honest communication with non-kin is possible, because messages tend to be trusted as a default. We briefly consider the place of the platform of trust (...) on the road map as laid out in the Mirror System Hypothesis. We then turn to recent research on turn-taking in primates, which has been proposed as a precursor of the cooperative structuring of conversation in humans. We suggest, instead, that human turn-taking, in its full richness that makes it an interesting explanatory target, may only appear in a communicative system that is already founded on a community-wide, cooperative platform of trust. (shrink)

The set of design features developed by Charles Hockett in the 1950s and 1960s remains probably the most influential means of juxtaposing animal communication with human language. However, the general theoretical perspective of Hockett is largely incompatible with that of modern language evolution research. Consequently, we argue that his classificatory system—while useful for some descriptive purposes—is of very limited use as a theoretical framework for evolutionary linguistics. We see this incompatibility as related to the ontology of language, i.e. deriving from (...) Hockett’s interest in language as a product rather than a suite of sensorimotor, cognitive and social abilities that enable the use but also acquisition of language by biological creatures. After a reconstruction of Hockett’s views on design features, we raise two criticisms: focus on the means at the expense of content and focus on the code itself rather than the cognitive abilities of its users. Finally, referring to empirical data, we illustrate some of the problems resulting from Hockett’s approach by addressing three specific points—namely arbitrariness and semanticity, cultural transmission, and displacement—and show how the change of perspective allows to overcome those difficulties. (shrink)

We applaud Heintz & Scott-Phillips's guiding metaphor of “unleashing leashed expression,” and we value the unified explanation for the emergence of not only language, but also other forms of unleashed expression, such as multimodal communication. We are more critical of the authors' discussion of the selection pressures acting towards unleashed expression, which are proposed to hinge on partner choice ecology.

A persistent controversy in language evolution research has been whether language emerged in the gestural-visual or in the vocal-auditory modality. A “dialectic” solution to this age-old debate has now been gaining ground: language was fully multimodal from the start and remains so to this day. In this paper, we show this solution to be too simplistic and outline a more specific theoretical proposal, which we designate as pantomime-first. To decide between the multimodal-first and pantomime-first alternatives, we review several lines of (...) interdisciplinary evidence and complement it with a cognitive-semiotic experiment. In the study, the participants saw – and then matched to hand-drawn images – recordings of short transitive events enacted by 4 actors in two conditions: visual and multimodal. Significantly, the matching accuracy was greater in the visual than the multimodal condition, though a follow-up experiment revealed that the emotional profiles of the events enacted in the multimodal condition could be reliably detected from the sound alone. We see these results as supporting the proposed pantomime-first scenario. (shrink)

Although pantomimic scenarios recur in the most important historical as well as current accounts of language origins, a serious problem is the lack of a commonly accepted definition of “pantomime”. We scrutinise several areas of study, from theatre studies to semiotics to primatology, pointing to the differences in use that may give rise to misunderstandings, and working towards a set of definitional criteria of “pantomime” specifically useful for language evolution research. We arrive at a definition of pantomime as a communication (...) mode that is mimetic; non-conventional and motivated; multimodal ; improvised; using the whole body rather than exclusively manual; holistic; communicatively complex and self-sufficient; semantically complex; displaced, open-ended and universal. So conceived, “pantomime” is a near synonym of “bodily-mimetic communication” as envisaged by Donald and Zlatev. On a wider plane, our work may help organise some of the terminology and discussion in language evolution, e.g. by drawing a clear distinction between gestural and pantomimic scenarios or by specifying the relation between pantomimic and multimodal scenarios. (shrink)

Politeness in conversation is a fascinating aspect of human interaction that directly interfaces language use and human social behavior more generally. We show how game theory, as a higher-order theory of behavior, can provide the tools to understand and model polite behavior. The recently proposed responsibility exchange theory :313–344, 2019) describes how the polite communications of thanking and apologizing impact two different types of an agent’s social image: warmth and competence. Here, we extend this approach in several ways, most importantly (...) by adding a cultural-evolutionary dynamics that makes it possible to investigate the evolutionary stability of politeness strategies. Our analysis shows that in a society of agents who value status-related traits over reciprocity-related traits, both the less and the more polite strategies are maintained in cycles of cultural-evolutionary change. (shrink)

Research on language evolution is an established subject area yet permeated by terminological controversies about which topics should be considered pertinent to the field and which not. By consequence, scholars focusing on language evolution struggle in providing precise demarcations of the discipline, where even the very central notions of evolution and language are elusive. We aimed at providing a data-driven characterisation of language evolution as a field of research by relying on quantitative analysis of data drawn from 697 reviews on (...) 255 submissions from the Joint Conference on Language Evolution 2022 (Kanazawa, Japan). Our results delineate a field characterized by a core of main research topics such as iconicity, sign language, multimodality. Despite being explored within the framework of language evolution research, only very recently these topics became popular in linguistics. As a result, language evolution has the potential to emerge as a forefront of linguistic research, bringing innovation to the study of language. We also see the emergence of more recent topics like rhythm, music, and vocal learning. Furthermore, the community identifies cognitive science, primatology, archaeology, palaeoanthropology, and genetics as key areas, encouraging empirical rather than theoretical work. With new themes, models, and methodologies emerging, our results depict an intrinsically multidisciplinary and evolving research field, likely adapting as language itself. (shrink)

This article introduces a special issue on mechanisms in language evolution research. It describes processes relevant for the emergence of protolanguage and the transition thereof to modern language. Protolanguage is one of the key terms in the field of language evolution, used to designate a hypothesised intermediate stage in the emergence of language present in extinct hominins: qualitatively different from non-human primate communication in possessing some, but not all, of the features that characterise modern language. Much debate in language evolution (...) focuses on the exact delineation of these features, as well as the means whereby the transitions occurred: first from non-human primate communication systems to protolanguage, and then from protolanguage to modern language. In what follows, we first propose a comprehensive typology of protolanguage debates, taking into account the postulated structural organisation of protolanguage, its functions, and its communicative modality. This makes it possible to show how a specific focus on mechanisms and processes deemed relevant for the emergence of these features allows us to assess the explanatory scope of the existing theories of protolanguage. (shrink)

Gestural and pantomimic accounts of language origins propose that language did not develop directly from ape vocalisations, but rather that its emergence was preceded by an intervening stage of bodily-visual communication, during which our ancestors communicated with their hands, arms, and the entire body. Gestural and pantomimic scenarios are again becoming popular in language evolution research, but this line of thought has a long and interesting history that gained special prominence in the Enlightenment, often considered the golden age of glottogony. (...) We highlight several themes key to this line of reflection, such as the idea of innate communication that consists of visual bodily signs and non-linguistic vocalisations; the division of labour between these two semiotic resources ; or the developmental trajectory of this bi-modal system of communication determined by its transmission through generations of users and the intervention of social factors. We confront these ideas with problems discussed in current language evolution research, focusing on polysemioticity, sign function, conventionality and modality transition. (shrink)

We present a new road map for research on “How the Brain Got Language” that adopts an EvoDevoSocio perspective and highlights comparative neuroprimatology – the comparative study of brain, behavior and communication in extant monkeys and great apes – as providing a key grounding for hypotheses on the last common ancestor of humans and monkeys and chimpanzees and the processes which guided the evolution LCA-m → LCA-c → protohumans → H. sapiens. Such research constrains and is constrained by analysis of (...) the subsequent, primarily cultural, evolution of H. sapiens which yielded cultures involving the rich use of language. (shrink)

Experimental Semiotics (ES) is the study of novel forms of communication that communicators develop in laboratory tasks whose designs prevent them from using language. Thus, ES relates to pragmatics in a “pure,” radical sense, capturing the process of creating the relation between signs and their interpreters as biological, psychological, and social agents. Since such a creation of meaning-making from scratch is of central importance to language evolution research, ES has become the most prolific experimental approach in this field of research. (...) In our paper, we report the results of a study on the scope of recent ES and evaluate the ways in which it is relevant to the study of language origins. We coded for multiple levels across 13 dimensions related to the properties of the emergent communication systems or properties of the study designs, such as type of goal (coordination versus referential), modality of communication, absence or presence of turn-taking, or the presence of vertical vs. horizontal transmission. We discuss our findings and our classification, focusing on the advantages and limitations of those trends in ES, and in particular their ecological validity in the context of bootstrapping communication and the evolution of language. (shrink)

Several lines of research within developmental psychology, experimental semiotics and language origins studies have recently converged in their interest in pantomime as a system of bodily communication distinct from both language (spoken or signed) and nonlinguistic gesticulation. These approaches underscore the effectiveness of pantomime, which despite lack of semiotic conventions is capable of communicating complex meanings. However, very little research is available on the structural underpinnings of this effectiveness, that is, the specific properties of pantomime that determine its communicative success. (...) To help fill in this gap, we conducted an exploratory rating study aimed at identifying those properties of pantomime that facilitate its understanding. We analysed an existing corpus of 602 recordings of whole-body re-enactments of short transitive events, coding each of them for 6 properties, and found out that the presence of salient elements (conspicuous objects in a specific semantic space), image mapping (representing the physical orientation of the object), and gender markers (distinguishing between the represented characters) increased the guessability of pantomimes. (shrink)

We comment on the consequences of the target article for language evolution research. We propose that the default assumption should be that of language-readiness in extinct hominins, and the integration of different types of available evidence from multiple disciplines should be used to assess the likely extent of the realization of this readiness. The role of archaeological evidence should be reconsidered.

We study the structure of analytic ideals of subsets of the natural numbers. For example, we prove that for an analytic ideal I, either the ideal {X (Ω × Ω: En X ({0, 1,…,n} × Ω } is Rudin-Keisler below I, or I is very simply induced by a lower semicontinuous submeasure. Also, we show that the class of ideals induced in this manner by lsc submeasures coincides with Polishable ideals as well as analytic P-ideals. We study this class of (...) ideals and characterize, for example, when the ideals in it are Fσ or when they carry a locally compact group topology. We apply these results to Borel partial orders to rederive a theorem of Todorcevic and to Borel equivalence relations to answer a question of Kechris and Louveau. As another application we give a characterization of σ-ideals of μ-zero sets for Maharam submeasures μ on the Cantor set which is to a large extent analogous to a characterization of the meager ideal due to Kechris and the author. (shrink)

Since 1989, clinical ethics consultation in form of hospital ethics committees was established in most of the transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Up to now, the similarities and differences between HECs in Central and Eastern Europe and their counterparts in the U.S. and Western Europe have not been determined. Through search in literature databases, we have identified studies that document the implementation of clinical ethics consultation in Central and Eastern Europe. These studies have been analyzed under the following (...) aspects: mode of establishment of HECs, character of consultation they provide, and their composition. The results show that HECs in the transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe differ from their western-European or U.S. counterparts with regard to these three aspects. HECs were established because of centrally imposed legal regulations. Little initiatives in this area were taken by medical professionals interested in resolving emerging ethical issues. HECs in the transition countries concentrate mostly on review of research protocols or resolution of administrative conflicts in healthcare institutions. Moreover, integration of non-professional third parties in the workings of HECs is often neglected. We argue that these differences can be attributed to the historical background and the role of medicine in these countries under the communist regime. Political and organizational structures of healthcare as well as education of healthcare staff during this period influenced current functioning of clinical ethics consultation in the transition countries. (shrink)

W niewielkim zbiorze archiwaliów, pozostałych po klasztorze i kolegium jezuickim, które funkcjonowały w Nysie przez blisko półtora wieku, zachował się materiał interesujący ze względu na związek z historią teatru na Śląsku. W rękopiśmiennej księdze znajdujemy bowiem zestawione scenariusze spektakli wystawianych przez uczniów wspomnianego kolegium. W artykule przybliżam kontekst historyczny powstania tego dokumentu oraz jego znaczenie dla badań nad dziejami kultury śląskiej i europejskiej.

Kolejny tom „Rocznika Filozoficznego Ignatianum” zawiera w części tematycznej artykuły przygotowane z okazji obchodów jubileuszu 70-lecia Archiwum Państwowego w Opolu, jednej z 33 tego typu instytucji wchodzących w skład sieci polskich archiwów państwowych. Rocznice, których świętowanie rozpoczęło się w 2019 roku w stulecie ogłoszenia _Dekretu o organizacji archiwów państwowych i opiece nad archiwaliami_ przez Naczelnika Państwa Józefa Piłsudskiego, są okazją do ponownego spojrzenia na zgromadzone w magazynach bezcenne źródła historyczne. Jubileusz opolskiego archiwum obchodzony w 2023 roku zainspirował badaczy do wdrożenia (...) w życie idei powrotu to źródeł, stąd przedstawione teksty opierają się na analizie archiwaliów i mieszczą się przede wszystkim w szeroko pojmowanym dyskursie o dziejach Śląska. (shrink)

I attempt to answer thequestion about the place of Eurasianism in theRussian intellectual tradition. I reconstructits historiosophical assumptions as well thepolitical ideology following from them. I sharethe opinion of certain historians thatEurasianism is interesting for a variety ofreasons, but I disagree with those who see init nothing more than a synthesis of standardideas often found in the history of Russianthought. Eurasianism''s originality includes itsacknowledgment of the positive contribution ofthe Mongols to the history of the Russianstate, the radicalism of its critique (...) of theWest, the innovativeness of its theory ofrevolution, as well as the absence, unusual forRussian thinkers of the period, of aneschatological sensitivity. (shrink)

Cognitive and temperamental predictors of field dependence-independence The purpose of the study was to define structures of connections between the temperamental and cognitive factors as predictors of field dependence-independence. It was assumed that both the structure of temperament traits and cognitive mechanisms manifest themselves in tasks used for measuring cognitive styles. 108 participants took part in the experiment. Embedded Figure Test was used as a measure of field dependence-independence; Formal of Characteristics of Behaviour Temperament Inventory /fcb-ti/ for temperament structure, and (...) three computerized tasks as indicators of wide spectrum of attention and working memory functioning. Three hypothetical models in path analysis were verified. The best fit of the results obtained is provided by the model comprising two groups of factors: two energetic temperamental factors: endurance and emotional reactivity, and two cognitive factors: efficiency of selective attention and efficiency of visual-spatial sketch pad. The data was discussed from temperamental, cognitive and developmental perspectives. (shrink)

Current developments in the area of neuroenhancement pose multiple ethical and societal questions. Improvements in general cognitive capacities can have important positive effects. With the use of several interventions, ranging from pharmaceutics through microsurgery to non-invasive and invasive methods, new possibilities of enhancing human abilities can be achieved. Yet, they have to be critically evaluated from the point of view of both individual and societal consequences that are involved. The aim of this paper is to address societal benefits and challenges (...) that are related to these interventions. These new developments, especially in the specific area of their military application, pose important questions with regard to safety of their use, long-term results, coercion to use them, and issues of inequality. Often, these consequences are unforeseeable at the present moment and can greatly interfere with development of both individuals and societies. Therefore, as in both areas – civilian and military – the long-term consequences are still difficult to predict, prudency is prescribed. Consequently, any use of the methods of enhancement should be under exceptional scrutiny from the ethical as well as legal and social point of view. (shrink)

Artykuł jest próbą ukazania źródeł współczesnej kultury. Autor stawia w nim tezę, że u jej podstaw znajduje się dziś myślenie w gruncie rzeczy antyhumanistyczne – myślenie spod znaku „śmierci człowieka”, jego bytowej nieokreśloności, ale również spod znaku nowożytnego cogito, podmiotu zabsolutyzowanego, który staje się szczególnego rodzaju fundamentem, ostatecznym podłożem rzeczywistości. W pierwszej części autor przedstawia specyfikę nowożytnego rozumienia bytu ludzkiego, zgodnie z którą człowiek – jako podmiot myślący, poznający, samoświadomy, racjonalny – przypisuje sobie rolę nowożytnego suwerena, Demiurga, jedynego ustawodawcy i (...) architekta nowego, prawdziwie ludzkiego świata. W ten sposób – zgodnie ze znaczeniem słowa „podmiot” – człowiek staje się „ostatecznym podłożem” rzeczywistości. Dalej autor wykazuje, że absolutyzowanie podmiotu, przypisywanie mu coraz to większych kompetencji, doprowadza ostatecznie do jego podważenia i zanegowania. Odwołując się do koncepcji takich filozofów jak Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, Foucault, Derrida twierdzi, że negacja kartezjańskiego cogito, „śmierć” pewnej określonej wizji człowieka jako podmiotu rodzi myślenie, zgodnie z którym człowiek staje się bytowo nieokreślony.Zarówno nowoczesne jak i ponowoczesne spojrzenie zostały w pewien sposób naznaczone myśleniem antyhumanistycznym. W jednym i drugim przypadku mamy bowiem do czynienia z nierealistycznym spojrzeniem na człowieka. Autor mówi o „antyhumanizmie pana i władcy” oraz „antyhumanizmie zluzowanego” i wskazuje, że właśnie one stanowią swego rodzaju podglebie współczesnego humanizmu. W punkcie ostatnim pokazano, że sposób rozumienia roli podmiotu na przestrzeni ostatnich kilku wieków, został zbudowany na niezwykle prostej opozycji – wszystko albo nic. Ponieważ nieprawdą jest, że podmiot jest dla siebie całkowicie racjonalny, przejrzysty, że jest autonomicznym panem samego siebie, musi zniknąć, trzeba o nim zapomnieć, stąd idea „śmierci człowieka”. W tym kontekście, odwołując się do intuicji francuskiej profesor filozofii Chantal Delsol, autor przedstawia próbę wyjścia z aporii między nowoczesnym podmiotem absolutnym, samowystarczalnym, a ponowoczesnym podmiotem, którego właściwie nie ma. Wskazuje na konieczność realistycznego spojrzenia na człowieka, gdyż tylko na takim spojrzeniu można zbudować prawdziwie humanistyczną kulturę. (shrink)

The author emphasizes importance of the resolution of International Covenant of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights by the General Assembly of the United Nations Organization on 16th December 1966, that took place at the same day as the resolution of International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights. This consists in overcoming of the doctrine of the 19th century that the development of economic and social rights presents a menace to the realization of political rights which connects in an inseparable way (...) both categories of the above mentioned rights. (shrink)

The development of new methods in the field of prenatal testing leads to an expansion of information that needs to be provided to expectant mothers. The aim of this research is to explore opinions and attitudes of gynecologists in Germany, Poland and Russia towards access to prenatal testing and diagnostics in these countries. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with n = 18 gynecologists in Germany, Poland and Russia. The interviews were analyzed using the methods of content analysis and thematic analysis. Visible (...) in all three countries is a connection of prenatal medicine with the politically and socially contentious issue of pregnancy termination. Respondents in Poland and Russia concentrated on the topic of inadequate resources. Quality of information for expectant mothers is an important point in all three countries. Only in Germany was the issue of language barriers in communication raised. With regard to non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) respondents in Germany focused on the ethical issues of routinization of testing; in Poland and Russia they concentrated on fair access to NIPT. Challenges in all three countries arise from structural factors such as imprecise and prohibitive regulations, lack of resources or organization of healthcare services. These should be addressed on a political and medico-ethical level. (shrink)

Working memory (WM) is regarded the engine of the mind. It has been defined as ‘an ability to mentally maintain information in an active and readily accessible state while concurrently and selectiv...