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...

What underlies young children’s failure in evaluating underinformative teachers? We explore the hypothesis that children have difficulty representing relevant alternatives; knowing what the teacher could have done. Children rated two teachers who demonstrated toys to a naı̈ve learner. One group first observed a fully informative teacher and then an underinformative teacher, while the other group...

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...