tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5275657281509261156.post2249421000856113444..comments2024-03-28T04:04:55.806-07:00Comments on Faculty of Language: Minimalist Physics?Norberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15701059232144474269noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5275657281509261156.post-62739221812897538012013-07-16T20:38:00.059-07:002013-07-16T20:38:00.059-07:00A maybe simple-minded remark I have is this. From ...A maybe simple-minded remark I have is this. From the point of view of the universe, a human brain, and the cognitive abilities that depend on it, are more similar to planetary orbits than to "fundamental phenomena". So, in the same way as we don't expect "planetary orbits to have beautiful curves", because planets are not "fundamental" in any way, we don't expect human cognition to be "fundamental" or "beautiful" in Weinberg's sense, i.e. from the point of view of physical laws. Human cognition *must* be the product of very complex interactions between various things, some of them quite contingent. This holds I suppose for all organs, which is why biology is, I think, less theoretical than physics. Granted, even in biology one can find "beauty" I suppose , and I definitely think that linguistics has uncovered a number of beautiful generalizations and offered a few explanatory accounts displaing both conceptual elegance and predictive power. But we cannot a priori *expect* that we will once have a theory of the language faculty that is as pure as fundamental physics is. There may well be irreducible "stipulations". This is totally independent of the fact that we should of course strive for parsimony, elegant and simple theories, etc, as in any other science. But the expectation that the most elegant/simple/parsimonious theory will turn out to reveal that the language faculty is itself maximally elegant, simple and non-redundant is not intrinsically motivated. Let me insist on *maximally*: based on my experience as a linguist, I do believe that there are many instances where linguistics has revealed "order" where superficial inspection could have suggested that everything is a mess.Benjaminhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16392683273389659624noreply@blogger.com