The Symbolic Species: The Co-Evolution of Language and the Brain
by Terrence W. Deacon

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Book Reviews of The Symbolic Species: The Co-Evolution of Language and the Brain

Book Review: "Selfish Gene" for the 90s?
Summary: 5 Stars

I'm cheating a bit since I'm only about 150 pages into this book. But I can't restrain myself any longer! If this book continues in the head-spinning manner that the first section does, it might very well be the best book with the word "evolution" in it's title I've ever read!

If you read the selfish gene, remember the moment you first read about memes? "What a preposterous idea," you said. Then the idea sank in and changed the way you thought about humans and culture.

Be prepared to have a meme-like epiphany with this book as well. It offers, to me, a completely new outlook on the evolution of language. It turns the previous and widely accepted versions on their head. Steve Pinker and Noam Chomsky must be rolling in their respective...beds!

This is the kind of theory that can, almost overnight, render countless books on the nature and evolution of language, kindling! But beware, if you hold any sacred cows dear to your heart, they're liable to end up steer for the slaughter. Forget "critical periods" and "innate grammars." They might just be the new phlogiston.

Just ask yourself this; which evolves faster, brains or language? So, if one "needs" to adapt to the other, which one will have (1000's of times) more opportunities to do so? Yes! It's language that is evolving to be the best at getting into brains! The earlier and easier it can get into your skull, the better the chances it will reproduce and move on to the next generation!

I thought the best book of the year would be "Guns, Germs and Steel," I'm not so sure anymore!

Read this book!

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