Abstract
The perception component of the language faculty and the teleological notion that everything may have intentions and purpose could have developed from the primitive agency detection seen in most moving animals. Many new-born, totally naive animals show predator avoidance and behave as if everything around may be alive and dangerous and have malevolent intentions. Piaget demonstrated that young children believe that everything around is probably alive and has purpose and intentions. The perception component of the language faculty involves an intrinsic motivation to search for intentions and meanings of sound combinations (words and phrases), and a search for the meanings and intentions of systematic changes in words, that is a search for the grammar rules. Possible homologs to animal genes for predator avoidance or perception of calls could be compared in humans and chimpanzees. Evidence of positive selection or accelerated evolution of human homolog genes might indicate putative genes for language perception.
Highlights
People tend to assume that things exist for a purpose
Magical thinking, animism, and “artificiality” of children were extensively investigated by Piaget (1929)
An examination of which genes are turned on or off in infected rats might reveal possible agency detection genes. It is the hypothesis of this paper that the teleological bias and the perception part of language acquisition have both evolved from agency/predator detection
Summary
People tend to assume that things exist for a purpose. This teleological way of thinking was central to the early philosophy of Plato and Aristotle; it was discussed by Kant and is a basic aspect in the work of Hegel (Wattles 2006). Adults often behave as if things are alive and have intentions, they know quite well that this is not the case (Rosset 2008, Kelemen and Rosse 2009). Many people scold their cars when they will not start on frosty mornings, talk to their computers when they “misbehave”, and order their ball to avoid the trees and bunkers on the golf course. Living organisms are complicated self-regulating feedback systems shaped and pruned by natural selection over thousands of generations They often behave as if they have purpose, qua the “memory” inscribed in their DNA of what works and what does not work. It is a useful shortcut to ask: what is the purpose of this organ, enzyme, or behavior?
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