Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
All biological organisms have adaptations that enable them to search for, and
perhaps to acquire, what they need to live, reproduce, and prosper. Primates com-
municated using vocal signals for long eons before the emergence of
Homo sapiens
about 200,000 years ago (McBrearty and Brooks
2000
)
.
The anatomies of the
larynxes of fossil hominids (Lieberman et al.
2002
) demonstrate that as early as
700,000 years ago strong selection-pressure favored those individuals or groups that
were adept at the use of proto-language (McBrearty
2007
, 142). Significant
mutual
influence of genetic and cultural factors has been characteristic of the evolution of the
ancestors of
Homo sapiens
(Richerson et al.
2010
). Explicit knowledge depends on
speech—and language is essentially social. Voiceless language-use enables
imagi-
nation
of situations that never occurred. When we imagine better ways to act, or when
formerly-successful habits no longer work, we sometimes resort to
inquiry
—detailed
investigation of specific issues. In favorable cases, inquiry may realize imagined
improvements or resolve perceived difficulties, but every such achievement destabi-
lizes other aspects of culture. Human behavior-patterns must continually adjust to
cultural change. (The Red Queen
4
rules.)
Transmission of habits between generations and within and among communities
depends on narrative, and is never error-free. Results of any inquiry can be
extended and modified by findings of subsequent related inquiries. Outcomes of
inquiry are never complete or certain. We do not know the entire and indubitable
truth about any topic: all human knowledge is, at best, correct as far as it goes, or
adequate for this or that purpose (da Costa and French
2003
).
Peirce considered that: “The real is that which is not whatever we happen to
think it, but is unaffected by whatever we may think of it” (CP 5.430). He held
that the results of inquiry tend to converge on progressively better approximations
of the real, but final convergence would require indefinitely wide and long inquiry.
We may expect that well-established science has arrived at fairly-adequate notions
of reality—but this cannot be guaranteed.
We deal with problems by actions—described by verbs (we
attack
). Adverbs
specify aspects of actions (they react
rapidly
): adjectives describe qualities of objects
(their runners are
fast
). Eventually, we
reify
—postulate objects from aspects of action
(their
swiftness
did us in). Dewey (
2012
, 203 ff.) advised philosophers to be wary of
pitfalls connected with progression from verb to adverb to adjective to noun. Des-
cartes illustrated the error Dewey warns against when he postulated a
res cogitans
—a
substantial
mind
—to account for successful human action. The fact that we can
“Mind the Gap” does not mean that such an entity as
actually exists.
Inquiry gave rise to philosophy and eventually resulted in science. On this basis,
language, intentionality, and human inquiry are all analogous to the elaborate
behavioral adaptations that other organisms use to survive, reproduce, and flourish.
Philosophy and science should be regarded as closely-related and highly-evolved
human cultural adaptations.
mind
'
'
4
Now, HERE, you see, it takes all the running YOU can
do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast
as that!
A slow sort of country!
said the Queen.
'
'
'
(Carroll
1872
, Chapter 2).
'
