http://cogprints.org/7067/
Proposal for a shared evolutionary nature of language and consciousness
It is pretty obvious that language and human consciousness entertain tight relations. We
could not really be conscious of ourselves without the possibility to say “I” or “me”. And language
is a key contributor in our capability to identify ourselves as conscious entities existing in the
environment. But the relations linking language and consciousness are complex and difficult to
analyze. Evolutionary origins of language are unknown as no fossil traces have been left by our
ancestors. Sciences of consciousness however begin to make available some possible evolutionary
scenarios about the nature of human consciousness.
We want here to propose a link between language and consciousness by using such an
evolutionary scenario and also introduce the usage of a systemic approach to meaning generation.
In the first part of the presentation we will use an existing scenario about the evolutionary nature of
self-consciousness where the development of language has a role (1). We will highlight this role in
order to identify language and self-consciousness as inter-dependant in their nature through a
possible common evolutionary origin. Self-consciousness and language could then be considered as
tightly inter-dependant through a common build up of human nature during evolution.
The scenario presents an evolutionary nature of self-consciousness as resulting of the
capability for pre-human primates to identify with their conspecifics (1, 2). The conspecifics are
represented as existing in the environment, and such identification brought our pre-human ancestors
to consider themselves as also existing in the environment. The scenario takes this event as being a
first step for a conscious self-representation within pre-human primates, which progressively
evolved toward our today human consciousness (3).
But such identification with conspecifics was not for free at times of survival of the fittest.
Identifying with conspecifics meant for our pre-human ancestor to also identify with their sufferings
or encountered dangers. These came in addition to the dangers or sufferings naturally encountered
and created a significant anxiety increase (1).
The resulting level of anxiety had to be limited. One possibility for that was to develop
psychological or physical tools that could have reduced the risks of occurrences and developments
of such dangers and sufferings. Among these tools is the performance of language which can
induces significant evolutionary advantages. We will propose a first scheme about how these
evolutionary advantages could have reduced the dangers and sufferings encountered by our pre-
human ancestors. We will also show how the development of language produced by itself a positive
feedback on the development of inter-subjectivity in the evolutionary scenario, and so participated
directly to the development of human consciousness.
Other evolutionary advantages have existed like the development of imitation and synergy
through experience (4). Language played a role there also, and has to be taken into account. The
second part of the presentation will propose the usage of an existing systemic approach to meaning
generation in terms of constraints satisfaction (5, 6). Constraints for pre-human primates, ranging
from a basic “stay alive” to highly elaborated “limit anxiety”, were source of multiple meaning
generations in which language has played (and still plays) a key role. Several continuations will be
proposed linked to the here above thread on a co-evolutions of language and human consciousness,
as based on the evolutionary scenario.
Menant, Mr Christophe
Animal Cognition
Evolution
Cognitive Psychology
Pragmatics
Epistemology
Philosophy of Language
Philosophy of Mind
Christophe
Menant