Infants are able to learn abstract rules visually

[Ross Barlow]

Here is an interesting article from Science Dailey.  For what it’s worth.  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180222162121.htm

It reminded me of Rand’s historical reconstruction of human epistemological development, and I think she would have been pleased and vindicated to hear of this research.  (And it also reminded me of you folks here on Objectivist Living, whose company I do not seek out nearly enough.) 

-Ross Barlow.

[Brant Gaede]

3 hours ago, Ross Barlow said:

Here is an interesting article from Science Dailey.  For what it’s worth.  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180222162121.htm

It reminded me of Rand’s historical reconstruction of human epistemological development, and I think she would have been pleased and vindicated to hear of this research.  (And it also reminded me of you folks here on Objectivist Living, whose company I do not seek out nearly enough.) 

-Ross Barlow.

Hi, Ross! Are you still in Thailand?

I don't think this article, as interesting as it is, much addresses Rand's claim that we are born "tabula rasa." A claim she had no business making unless she had gotten more particular that she did. As such there is no way to know if that part of her position is true or false for it cannot be examined. That's fine; she was much more seminal than an authority. If one doesn't know this about Rand-land but gets drawn into her "Objectivist" matrix one might never find one's way out. She never did, but never wanted to.

--Brant

[BaalChatzaf]

3 hours ago, Ross Barlow said:

Here is an interesting article from Science Dailey.  For what it’s worth.  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180222162121.htm

It reminded me of Rand’s historical reconstruction of human epistemological development, and I think she would have been pleased and vindicated to hear of this research.  (And it also reminded me of you folks here on Objectivist Living, whose company I do not seek out nearly enough.) 

-Ross Barlow.

The human brain at work.  Actually infants have more neural interconnection at age 3 months  than humans in  their physical prime or near at age 12 years.  Part of learning a language and learning folkways involves cutting down on neural interconnections that do not add to increased comprehension an d strengthening those neural interconnects that do.  It is sort of a Darwinia elimination scheme. Only  the fit interconnections  survive.  Thus the brain is sculpted, in part, by the surrounding in which the young human infant live.  A major factor in this reformatting of the brain is acquiring a language.  

I am going to make a guess,  educated speculation  that infants think in a kind of proto language which is morphed into the language(s)  learned in the cradle and highchair. Furthermore the form of linguistic structure is the raw material of logic and inference.  Long before Aristotle  wrote his famous  treatises on syllogistic logic,  humans were thinking logically. Aristotle  left us with his -understanding- of how logical inferences are made.  There were other understandings of this process.  The Stoics created a system of logic based on conditionals rather than the term structure of syllogistic logic.  Basically  if then else  logic. And this was the logic the Euclid used when he wrote The Elements. 

To conclude,  humans are smart from the git-go and their hungry little brains are  gathering up and digesting patterns from any available source. If there is a basic human impulse, it is the impulse to systematize complicated structures  and wrap the structures in rules. One manifesting of this is the organization of  infant-blab  into workable linguistic structures, both syntactical and semantic.  We are born blabber-mouths.   Gab is what humans do.  Gabbing and singing.  

[Brant Gaede]

It was found out in the 19th C. that humans would develop their own unique language if not exposed to one in infancy. Thus, language is a biological imperative for our species.

--Brant

I can't reference this

[BaalChatzaf]

4 hours ago, Brant Gaede said:

It was found out in the 19th C. that humans would develop their own unique language if not exposed to one in infancy. Thus, language is a biological imperative for our species.

--Brant

I can't reference this

Each person speaking his/her private language would not promote the exchange of ideas.  A common language is required to have human communities engaged in co-operative activities.

 

[Brant Gaede]

5 hours ago, BaalChatzaf said:

Each person speaking his/her private language would not promote the exchange of ideas.  A common language is required to have human communities engaged in co-operative activities.

There was a social matrix.

--Brant

[Peter]

On ‎2‎/‎25‎/‎2018 at 10:36 AM, Brant Gaede said:

It was found out in the 19th C. that humans would develop their own unique language if not exposed to one in infancy. Thus, language is a biological imperative for our species.

--Brant

I can't reference this

I think the movie was called, "Nell," with Jodie Foster that explored that idea. Of course, twins develop their own languages too, as they learn their parent's native tongues.