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Title: Uniquely Human: The Evolution of Speech, Thought, and Selfless Behavior by Philip Lieberman ISBN: 0-674-92182-8 Publisher: Harvard University Press Pub. Date: 01 February, 1991 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $47.50

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Average Customer Rating: 5 (2 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: Bigger brains, adapted for speech... what makes us *us*?
Comment: Lieberman was my unofficial mentor when I was an undergraduate at Brown University, and this is the one of his books that made the greatest impression on me. It describes in clear and convincing detail why, how -- and at what cost -- humans evolved not merely the cognitive but also the physiological capacity to use language and speech.

Briefly, Lieberman argues first that language and speech must have co-evolved (as opposed to the capacity for language coming first, perhaps being used in gestural modalities before the capacity for speech came about). The reasons for this are complex, but the gist of it is that a supra-laryngeal vocal tract that permits formation of the sounds of human speech is such a non-survival characteristic (adult humans are the only mammals incapable of breathing and drinking simultaneously (thus also rendering infants subject to SIDS in the period when the larynx drops), small mouth and small teeth make us work harder to ingest food, etc.) that it would never have evolved at all if the capacity to use language had co-evolved with some other adequate modality of language use. In addition, general principles of natural selection tell us that the cognitive capacity for language (probably) did not evolve independent of an ability to use language.

Next, Lieberman argues that the cognitive capacities that make language possible are the very same ones that make possible all of the cognitive "feats" that we consider to be particular to humankind: creativity and innovative thought, as well as our highly-developed hand-eye coordination and digital manipulation abilities.

In my view -- but not Lieberman's -- the third part of his argument is something of an afterthought, not a necessary part of his theory and more speculative than data-driven. However, it remains an extremely important and interesting speculative exercise, namely: what is the origin of "true" altruism (by which I mean something more than "kinship" or other, lesser forms of altruism)? Lieberman implies that the same brain areas that evolved to make efficient, linguistic, syntax-governed communication possible are the same ones responsible for true altruism, a trait found only in human beings (if even there!).

To summarize, this is Lieberman's most readable book, intended for a broad, lay audience, and functions as a terrific counterpoint both to hardline, evidence-be-damned non-Darwinian language theorists such as Chomsky and Pinker and to sloppy evolutionary psychology which fails to distinguish the (admittedly few) qualitative differences between human and nonhuman mammalian decision-making.

Rating: 5
Summary: language and the ability to cooperate make us human
Comment: Lieberman, Professor of Linquistics at Brown University, argues that the unique ability of humans to speak and to rapidly process language information gives us our evolutionary edge over other species. (One on one, tigers win.) His account is a rich revisiting of an idea put forth by Darwin as he places at the center of our unique capacity as a species our ability to work together and transmit information through a rich linquistic tradition. Moreover, he supports his argument with an abundance of data on human speech and language ability and traces the evolution of these abilities. A worthwhile antidote to simplistic "selfish gene" thinking which has become too popular.