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Originally Posted by Cynosure
Then, why don't you quit beating around the bush and just give us (me) that information?
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The reason I posed the question is that I don't like semantic debates. Therefore, if your meaning of the word "intelligence," in this context, matches mine, we may continue the discussion. However, if we mean slightly different things, like whether instincts are part of it or not, then the only disagreement would be semantic and I'd be done. Pretty sinister, eh?
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Oh, very well... I'll answer your bloody question. (Really, at first I merely overlooked it. Then, after I saw you getting anxious because I didn't answer it, like it was your trump card or like you were dangling it out in hopes to ensnare me, I began to purposely ignore it. Because, I've learned to be on guard against trolls, on these message boards.)
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While I'm also wary of trolls on random web forums, the reason I like the TFP is that definite lack of trolls here. Have you noticed any? Perhaps more to the point, have you noticed me trolling?
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Is language instinctual for mankind or did we figure it out? Hmm... I never really thought about it, and I haven't read any information on the subject, but I suppose originally language was the product of mankind's instincts. But eventually, mankind discovered – i.e. we figured out – new and more powerful ways to communicate; the first big one being "writing", but before that, there were ways like oral tradition and story telling and cave paintings; ways to express complex thoughts and ideas, ways to transmit information over time and space, and ways to preserve knowledge. And that, for sure, is due to mankind's intelligence.
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You're sort of walking the line here with your opinion.
I haven't studied the subject but there are telltale signs that language is innate. It's easier for us to learn language while we're young even though, as you've suggested yourself, we're much smarter as adults. This shows that there's some hardwiring in our brains for the acquisition of language. This is also evidenced in how, as adults, we can speak a new language for 50 years and still not get the pronunciation right. Also, I'm no linguist but I'm pretty sure that every language on Earth is based on a sequence of nouns, verbs and adjectives. This commonality suggests that grammars and the parsing thereof are part of our biology. Finally, I think I've heard somewhere that there are specific parts of our brain dedicated to language processing...
Obviously, many parts of language are learned, such as the particular language used and their written forms but all this follows from the initial ability for language. Any discovery or ingenuity made by some lucky and gifted individual may be preserved and propagated by the population to aid in further discoveries or ingenuities. It's a feedback loop and I think it's vain to think that this alone is a testament to our intelligence.
Judging by some of your other posts, you may find this opinion "nihilistic." I find this term to be far overused by pious people who find anything short of self worship (which I regard deity worship to be but that's a subject for yet another thread!) to be "nihilism..."
Finally, you have a funny habit of not completing your thoughts. For instance, you tried to create an implication between our value for human life and the intelligence of said life but when I questioned you on that you just ignored the question. This is not the first time you've done this, even in this thread alone. I just wanted to point that out to you...