{"id":487,"date":"2010-05-10T10:00:20","date_gmt":"2010-05-10T08:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elanguage.net\/blogs\/booknotices\/?p=487"},"modified":"2010-03-09T10:29:07","modified_gmt":"2010-03-09T08:29:07","slug":"in-search-of-a-language-for-the-mind-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/?p=487","title":{"rendered":"In search of a language for the mind-brain"},"content":{"rendered":"
In search of a language for the mind-brain: <\/strong>Can the multiple perspectives be unified? <\/strong>Ed. by <\/strong>Anjum P. Saleemi<\/strong>, Ocke-Schwen Bohn<\/strong>, and Albert Gjedde<\/strong>. (The dolphin 33.) Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2005. Pp. 399. ISBN 9788779340053<\/a>. $39.95.<\/div>\n

Reviewed by Kleanthes K. Grohmann<\/a><\/strong>, University of Cyprus<\/em><\/p>\n

As the preface to this eclectic collection clarifies, this volume is the product of a Mind-Brain Circle organized at Aarhus University (which the editors were affiliated with at the time). The articles reach considerably beyond language and linguistics, as becomes evident from Anjum P. Saleemi\u2019s \u2018Introduction: The enigma of unification\u2019. The volume is a mix of reprinted articles by some of the world\u2019s leading voices in mind-brain studies and original contributions from other, mostly local, researchers.<\/p>\n

The articles can be categorized into two groups. The first group of contributions includes articles by authors who are already well known. Noam Chomsky <\/strong>contributes two articles \u2018Language and mind: Current thoughts on ancient problems\u2019, which originally appeared in 1997, and \u2018Language and the brain\u2019, from 2001. The article on \u2018Consciousness\u2019 by John R. Searle<\/strong> dates from 2000, and Steven Pinker<\/strong>\u2019s article \u2018Reverse-engineering the psyche\u2019, from his 1997 book How the mind works<\/em> (New York: W. W. Norton & Company),<\/span> is reprinted here as well. Martin Atkinson<\/strong> expresses his \u2018Minimalist visions\u2019 to a (possibly) larger audience than the original 2000 edition (Essex working papers 34<\/em>, Colchester, UK: University of Essex).<\/p>\n

The second group of contributions includes work by the editors and local contributors. \u2018On pain of irrationality: Refuting relativistic challenges to the unifiability of knowledge\u2019 by Anjum P. Saleemi builds on the theme of his introduction: unification across multiple levels of reality. <\/strong>Ocke-Schwen Bohn (whose paper is mysteriously not included in the table of contents) wishes \u2018A fond farewell to the critical period hypothesis for non-primary language acquisition\u2019. Albert Gjedde\u2019s contribution \u2018Subjectivity and the self: The neurobiology of consciousness\u2019 enriches John R. Searle\u2019s philosophical concerns on the study of consciousness in addition to some neurobiological considerations.<\/p>\n

Dominic Rainsford<\/strong>, a local contributor and the former general editor of the Aarhus Dolphin-series, discusses \u2018Literary language and the scientific description of consciousness\u2019. In his \u2018Biology, culture and the emergence and elaboration of symbolization\u2019, Chris Sinha<\/strong> advocates the contribution of culture to human cognition. Finally, considering intricacies of the economic part of social complexity, Jamsheed Shorish<\/strong>, provides \u2018A simple vocabulary for planning and deliberation: Risk, complexity and Knightian uncertainty\u2019.<\/p>\n

In sum, this is at first glance perhaps a strange collection of articles dealing with quite different themes ranging from consciousness and language to complex social structures. That said, in its totality, the volume turns out to be a quite interesting contribution to the study of the human mind\/brain and beyond. The articles nicely connect philosophical, economical, psychological, and literary perspectives on issues many linguists have been concerned with for some time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In search of a language for the mind-brain: Can the multiple perspectives be unified? Ed. by Anjum P. Saleemi, Ocke-Schwen Bohn, and Albert Gjedde. (The dolphin 33.) Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2005. Pp. 399. ISBN 9788779340053. $39.95. Reviewed by Kleanthes K. Grohmann, University of Cyprus As the preface to this eclectic collection clarifies, this volume […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=487"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":488,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487\/revisions\/488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}