Commentary: Massachusetts exceptionalism

Research exceptionalism.

Research involving human subjects is much more stringently regulated than many other nonresearch activities that appear to be at least as risky. A number of prominent figures now argue that research is overregulated. We argue that the reasons typically offered to justify the present system of research regulation fail to show that research should be subject to more stringent regulation than othe...

Human exceptionalism.

How the unique capacities of human cognition arose in evolution is a question of enduring interest. The difficulty of finding the best allometric and developmental frame for brain evolution and growth, however, leads researchers to routinely identify predictable features of the human brain as exceptional.

Sengi exceptionalism

The recent report of Slomianka et al. (2013) starts from the fact that the hippocampus is disproportionately large in the eastern rock sengi. The sengi, or elephant shrew, is a small mammal, native to southern Africa, previously grouped with insectivores but now considered to form a separate taxonomic order (Macroscelidae). A disproportionately large hippocampus occurs in a number of other spec...

Against Creole exceptionalism (redux)*

1. RECONSIDERING CREOLE EXCEPTIONALISM? The primary goal of my Discussion Note ‘Against Creole exceptionalism’ (Language 79.2.391–410, hereafter ACE) was to demystify a variety of past and present beliefs—widespread in and outside academia—according to which Creole languages constitute an exceptional class on phylogenetic and/or typological grounds. Derek Bickerton’s reply (‘Reconsidering Creol...

the new exceptionalism