ArticleCommunicative & integrative biology2011
Can mathematics explain the evolution of human language?
Article in Communicative & integrative biology, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Life is more than a computer running DNA software.World journal of biological chemistry · 2014Article
- Pragmatic turn in biology: From biological molecules to genetic content operators.World journal of biological chemistry · 2014Review
- Life's code script does not code itself. The machine metaphor for living organisms is outdated.EMBO reports · 2012Article
- The biocommunication method: On the road to an integrative biology.Communicative & integrative biologyArticle
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1 author.
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Abstract
Investigation into the sequence structure of the genetic code by means of an informatic approach is a real success story. The features of human language are also the object of investigation within the realm of formal language theories. They focus on the common rules of a universal grammar that lies behind all languages and determine generation of syntactic structures. This universal grammar is a depiction of material reality, i.e., the hidden logical order of things and its relations determined by natural laws. Therefore mathematics is viewed not only as an appropriate tool to investigate human language and genetic code structures through computer science-based formal language theory but is itself a depiction of material reality. This confusion between language as a scientific tool to describe observations/experiences within cognitive constructed models and formal language as a direct depiction of material reality occurs not only in current approaches but was the central focus of the philosophy of science debate in the twentieth century, with rather unexpected results. This article recalls these results and their implications for more recent mathematical approaches that also attempt to explain the evolution of human language.
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