Paul Broca and the Evolutionary Genetics of Cerebral Asymmetry

In 1873, within two years of the publication of The Descent of Man, Friedrich Max Mueller wrote: There is one difficulty which Mr Darwin has not sufficiently appreciated … There is between the whole animal kingdom on the one side, and man, even in his lowest state, on the other, a barrier which no a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inRoyal Institute of Philosophy supplement Vol. 70; no. 70; pp. 133 - 147
Main Author Crow, Tim J.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.07.2012
Subjects
Asymmetry
Brain research
Cell cycle
Chromosomes
Evolution
Gender differences
Genes
Genetics
Genomics
Historical studies (History of philosophy. History of ideas)
Language
Mammals
Mutation
Philosophy
Psychiatry
Psychosis
Schizophrenia
Symmetry
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Summary:In 1873, within two years of the publication of The Descent of Man, Friedrich Max Mueller wrote: There is one difficulty which Mr Darwin has not sufficiently appreciated … There is between the whole animal kingdom on the one side, and man, even in his lowest state, on the other, a barrier which no animal has ever crossed, and that barrier is – Language … If anything has a right to the name of specific difference, it is language, as we find it in man, and in man only … If we removed the name of specific difference from our philosophic dictionaries, I should still hold that nothing deserves the name of man except what is able to speak … a speaking elephant or an elephantine speaker could never be called an elephant.' and (quoting Schleicher) ‘If a pig were ever to say to me, “I am a pig” it would ipso facto cease to be a pig’.
ISSN:1358-2461
1755-3555
DOI:10.1017/S1358246112000070