Skip to main content
Springer Nature Link
Log in

The Role of Conceptual Structure in Human Evolution

  • Conference paper
Conceptual Structures: Logical, Linguistic, and Computational Issues (ICCS 2000)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 1867))

Included in the following conference series:

  • 856 Accesses

Abstract

We generally think of conceptual structures (and their mathematical representations: conceptual graphs) as a technical framework providing a sound basis for research and design work in knowledge representation and related areas of computer science. In this article, I suggest that conceptual structure predates computer science by some three-million years. In particular, I argue that the human brain (or rather, the brain of our hominid ancestors) acquired conceptual structure long before it acquired language, and that the acquisition of conceptual structure was the key cognitive development that led to the emergence of contemporary humans. Moreover, human language was the result of the addition of grammatical structure to an already developed conceptual structure.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bickerton, D.: Language and Species. University of Chicago Press, Chicago (1990)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bickerton, D.: Language and Human Behavior. University of Washington Press, Seattle (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bickerton, D.: Catastrophic Evolution: The Case for a Single Step from Protolanguage to Full Human Language. In: Hurford, J., Studdert-Kennedy, M., Knight, C. (eds.) pp. 341–358 (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  • Calvin, W.: The unitary hypothesis: A common neural circuitry for novel manipulations, language, plan-ahead, and throwing? In: Gibson, Ingold (eds.) pp. 230–250 (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  • Devlin, K.: Logic and Information. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1991)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Devlin, K.: Goodbye Descartes: The End of Logic and the Search for a New Cosmology of the Mind. John Wiley and Sons, New York (1997)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Devlin, K.: The Math Gene: How Mathematical Ability Evolved and Why Numbers Are Like Gossip. Basic Books, New York (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunbar, R.: Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibson, K.R., Ingold, T. (eds.): Tools, Language, and Cognition in Human Evolution. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  • Hurford, J., Studdert-Kennedy, M., Knight, C. (eds.): Approaches to the Evolution of Language. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  • Lieberman, P.: The Biology and Evolution of Language. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (1992)

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinker, S.: The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language. William Morrow, New York (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  • Savage-Rumbaugh, S., Shankar, S., Taylor, T.: Apes, Language, and the Human Mind. Oxford University Press, New York (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  • Tobias, P.V.: The Brain in Hominid Evolution. Columbia University Press, New York (1971)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA

    Keith Devlin

  2. School of Science, Saint Mary’s College of California, Moraga, CA, 94575, USA

    Keith Devlin

Authors
  1. Keith Devlin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Algebra, University of Technology, Dresden, Germany

    Bernhard Ganter

  2. Département d’informatique et de génie logiciel, Université Laval, Pavillon Adrien-Pouliot, 1065, av. de la Médecine, G1V 0A6, Quebec City, Québec, Canada

    Guy W. Mineau

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2000 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Devlin, K. (2000). The Role of Conceptual Structure in Human Evolution. In: Ganter, B., Mineau, G.W. (eds) Conceptual Structures: Logical, Linguistic, and Computational Issues. ICCS 2000. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 1867. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/10722280_1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/10722280_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-67859-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-44663-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics