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#567 Chris Knight: The Cultural and Social Bases of Language

The Dissenter

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Language Is an Instinct

Language is an instinct, then it's no question about that. Children have an appetiteand to acquire the most theoretically complex structure we're aware of,. But how did that evolve? To me, it's the play instinct. So i disagree with chamsky and others who think that this language instinct came from nowhere. And you wouldn't get that instinct evolving in that direction if language wasn't being used. Language doesn't create virtual reality if itrequires it. What creates a virtual world is something much more subtle. They are not aware that it is actually the ritual practices of a society which generate the the shared illusionswhich make up symbolic culture. We need a theory to explain the emergence of

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