Vegetation is traditionally regarded as passive, doing nothing but what is essential to grow and survive. Evidence is accumulating, however, in support of formerly esoteric notions that plants can communicate, remember, even count--features that one would call cognitive if they were observed in animals. Michael Gross reports.

The evolution of the faculty of language largely remains an enigma. In this essay, we ask why. Language's evolutionary analysis is complicated because it has no equivalent in any nonhuman species. There is also no consensus regarding the essential nature of the language "phenotype." According to the "Strong Minimalist Thesis," the key distinguishing feature of language (and what evolutionary th...

Ought Implies Can or Could Have A. D. Bassford I Consider the following case: Case 1: Ray's house is being burglarized. The burglar has ambushed Ray and tied him to a chair facing window. friend, Sinan, happens be walking by. Sinan sees his friend in distress, approaches window, says Ray: "You're burglarized! You ought call police!" But responds: "I can't! I'm this chair."1 Perhaps best interpr...