Why Only Us?

https://catholicscientists.org/event/special-scs-zoom-lecture-discussion-qa-with-robert-c-berwick-on-april-17-at-8pm-edt/

There will be a special SCS Zoom Lecture on Wednesday, April 17, at 5:00pm PDT / 8:00pm EDT.  The title of the talk is “Why Only Us?” and the speaker is Prof. Robert C. Berwick of MIT, the co-author (with Noam Chomsky) of a ground-breaking book on the origin of human language, whose full title was “Why Only Us?: Language and Evolution” (MIT Press, 2016)  The book argued that only human beings have the capacity to process language with hierarchical syntax, a pre-requisite for formulating and expressing complex thoughts, and that this capacity arose very suddenly in evolutionary history.

The 40 minute talk will be followed by a moderated discussion and Q&A with the Zoom audience.

Those interested in gaining some familiarity with the ideas of Berwick and Chomsky in advance of the Zoom event are encouraged to watch the talk that Prof. Berwick gave at the inaugural conference of SCS in 2017 HERE, or to read the 2017 review of “Why Only Us?” written by Stephen M. Barr, which appeared in the journal First Things.  The review gave a concise summary of the ideas in the book and their relevance to certain important theological issues concerning human nature and human origins. The review can be found HERE.

The Zoom link for the event:  https://franciscan-edu.zoom.us/j/89119626531?pwd=dEsxcy84eWZzcTd3czFzaFpyS1RFZz09

The event is free and no registration is required.  Questions can be addressed to Stephen M. Barr at smpbarr@gmail.com