Prehension: The Hand and the Emergence of Humanity

202 Pages·2015·5.18 MB·English

by  Colin McGinn

Prehension

Prehension
The Hand and the Emergence of Humanity
Colin McGinn
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 2015 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McGinn, Colin, 1950–
Prehension : the hand and the emergence of humanity / Colin
McGinn.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-262-02932-2 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Human evolution. 2. Hand—Evolution. I. Title.
GN281.M395 2015
599.93′8—dc23
2014049819
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Preface vii
1 Origins of Humanity 1
2 Two Evolutionary Principles 7
3 Human Prehistory 17
4 Characteristics of the Human Hand 21
5 Hands and Tools 29
6 Hands and Language 39
7 Ostension and Prehension 51
8 From Signs to Speech 59
9 Hand and Mind 67
10 Selective Cognition and the Mouth 75
11 The Origin of Sentience 87
12 The Meaning of the Grip 101
13 A Culture of Hands 117
14 Arboreal Remnants 127
15 The Future of the Hand 143
Notes 151
Bibliography 179
Index 183

Preface
I expect this book to be controversial. Of the six readers who
reviewed it for the MIT Press, half hated it and half were enthu-
siastic. The former group consisted of people with a scientific
background, the latter group of philosophers. It seems reason-
able to predict a similar division (not to say divisiveness) among
readers going forward. I don’t think this in itself is a bad thing.
The book is certainly quirky, speculative, and unorthodox. As
they say, it pushes the envelope. I give my imagination a freer
rein than usual—too much for some people, perhaps.
I am not an expert in human evolution or anatomy or archae-
ology. I have never even touched a human fossil. My knowledge
of these fields is strictly that of a layman. What I have done
is combine an amateur knowledge of the science with a philo-
sophical slant (in which I do claim some expertise). I keep the
science basic and general, though I hope not naïve. I use the sci-
ence as a springboard for speculation. This is certainly not a text-
book on human evolution or hand physiology. It is an essay in
philosophical anthropology—general reflections on the nature
of humankind from an evolutionary perspective.
I have pitched it at roughly the level of Richard Dawkins’s
The Selfish Gene. That book seeks to conceptualize, organize, and
viii Preface
dramatize the scientific facts, and is philosophical to that degree.
It is also written for the general reader, not the specialist (though
it is certainly of interest to a specialist). I have attempted some-
thing similar here, though my efforts are a pale shadow of that
brilliant book. This book is directed to general readers and phi-
losophers (though scientists more given to speculation might
get something out of it). My procedure tends to be “rational
reconstruction”: seeing how things might have been, seeing
what is intelligible. Empirical verification is another matter, a
very difficult one given the distances of time and lack of con-
crete evidence. Yes, I am telling stories, though stories rooted in
science, and intended seriously.
The human hand plays a central role in the story I tell. One
of my aims here is to make us think about something we tend to
take for granted: the importance of the hand in nearly all of our
endeavors. I even wax a bit poetic about it in places. I approach
the hand from multiple directions—anatomically, functionally,
emotionally, cognitively, artistically, and philosophically. This
is, in part, a hymn to the hand. Touching, not seeing, gripping,
not witnessing: hence my title. This perspective is by no means
original to me: many thinkers have recognized the importance
of the hand and have written eloquently about it. I am simply
continuing that tradition, adding a point here and there.
Human evolution is still shrouded in mystery in many ways,
and there may even be limits to what we can expect to explain.
Still, a picture emerges that is both chastening and uplifting—
a possible way things could have been, and may actually have
been. I certainly don’t claim to have the full picture. But even
the sketch is worth making, with all due modesty. What I seek
to provide here is a philosopher’s take on the sketch that has
emerged since Darwin’s The Descent of Man. It is a mixture of
Preface ix
biology, anthropology, psychology, analytical philosophy, exis-
tential philosophy, sheer speculation, and utter amazement. I
hope the reader will forgive my sometimes exuberant style and
neglect of some of the scientific details (when I think the details
don’t affect the big picture). This is less a scholarly tome than a
dithyramb to the powers of evolution in general and the human
hand in particular. And it is not afraid to go out on a limb (an apt
metaphor, given the emphasis on trees).

Colin McGinn
September 2014