Showing posts with label Human biology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Human biology. Show all posts

29 May 2023

A gruesome autopsy of Chapter 5 of From Extraterrestrials to Animal Minds

Before I explain the rot at the heart of this chapter (Chapter 5 of From Extraterrestrials to Animal Minds: Six Myths of Evolution, "The Myth of Animal Minds," by Simon Conway Morris), I'd like to show you my workspace as I sullenly trudge toward the end of this task.

That's my fun little Chromebook 2-in-1, and the barely-visible tartan mouse pad is from my dad. You'll see my toolkit of sticky notes and a stack of (some of) my books on consciousness and human cognition. Conway Morris' book is open to the pages (155-157, in a section called "An unbridgeable gulf?") that stopped me in my tracks.

28 May 2023

The author doth protest too much, methinks. The disastrous Chapter 5 of From Extraterrestrials to Animal Minds

The Queen in Hamlet, by Edwin Austin Abbey
It's one of the most famous misquoted lines in the English language, spoken by Lady Gertrude (Hamlet's mom) during the intense scene featuring a play ("The Mousetrap" aka The Murder of Gonzago) within a play, intended by Hamlet to be "the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King." The character in "The Mousetrap" has delivered some sappy lines about commitment and widowhood, designed to flush out the King and Gertrude. But you know all that. The frequently-mangled line is "The lady protests too much, methinks." It's a great line and it works out to something like "she's overdoing it" spoken by a person who is literally the subject being portrayed. When we say "the lady doth protest too much" we usually mean "they're overacting so much that now it seems even they don't believe what they're saying."

That's how Chapter 5 of From Extraterrestrials to Animal Minds: Six Myths of Evolution, "The Myth of Animal Minds," felt to me. Simon Conway Morris is hellbent on digging a conceptual moat around human cognition, desperate to isolate it from non-human cognition so that it can receive metaphysical shipments from on high. If that sounds harsh, it isand it is exactly what the chapter is about.

14 May 2017

Does it take special genes to make a special human?

We humans think we're pretty special. Here's Hamlet, in the speech that gave this blog its name:
What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form, in moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!

Hamlet, Act II, Scene II, The Oxford Shakespeare
Kemble in the role of Hamlet, from Wellcome Images.
Kemble in the role of Hamlet.
Courtesy of Wellcome Images.
It is common, at least in the West, to consider humans "the paragon of animals," typically making reference to the ancient idea of "God's image." I won't address here whether humanity is a paragon, but here's a more tractable question: what are the facets that distinguish humans from other animals? Biologically speaking, what is special about humans that sets them apart from other apes?

Anatomically, we're pretty unremarkable apes. We have enlarged gluteal muscles and other adaptations that make us good distance runners. We have fancy thumbs that make us good tool users. We have a tweaked larynx that facilitates speech. We have spineless penises that facilitate other things. And of course we have what Hamlet was talking about: big brains and associated cognitive abilities.