The Human Mind through the Lens of Language: Generative Explorations

281 Pages·2022·11.836 MB·

by  Nirmalangshu Mukherji

The Human Mind through the Lens
of Language
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The Human Mind through the Lens
of Language
Generative Explorations
Nirmalangshu Mukherji
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First published in Great Britain 2022
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To
Mohan
vi
Contents
List of figures ix
Preface x
Introduction: Setting the stage 1
0.1 Mind and cognition 3
0.2 Cartesianism 6
0.3 Saltation problem 10
Part I The background
1 The Cartesian perspective on the mind 19
1.1 From substances to doctrines 21
1.2 Thought and consciousness 29
1.3 Ascription of thoughts 37
1.4 Mind and super-body 47
2 The mind in cognitive science 51
2.1 Traditional view of the mind 54
2.2 Computationalism 60
2.3 Neuroscientism 67
2.4 The modularity issue 72
Part II The proposal
3 Language as mirror of the mind 83
3.1 The onset of language 84
3.2 Language and thought 91
3.3 Principle G 99
3.4 Boundaries of the mind 103
4 Redesigning Proto 108
4.1 Aspects of language evolution 108
4.2 Two thought experiments 116
4.3 Generative operations 123
4.4 Proto and Principle G 129
viii Contents
5 Merge and linguistic specificity 134
5.1 Principles and parameters 135
5.2 Minimalism 143
5.3 Set Merge 150
5.4 Economy principles 154
6 No Merge for animals 160
6.1 The mind and computation 161
6.2 Insect navigation 168
6.3 Birdsong 173
6.4 Primate cognition 179
7 Merge is (perhaps) all we need 184
7.1 The language bias 184
7.2 Music 191
7.3 Questionable domains: Concepts, morality 200
7.4 Promising domains: Kinship, arts 208
8 Implications 213
8.1 Stone tools and early mind 213
8.2 Mind and core language 219
8.3 MERGE and Principle G 223
8.4 Words and Pair-Merge 226
Notes 233
References 243
Index 263
Figures
3.1 A section of the primate line 86
4.1 Evolution of hominid brain size 112
4.2 Modelling mental powers 115
6.1 Dead reckoning of C. fortis 169