Language and Morality: Evolution, Altruism, and Linguistic Moral

268 Pages·2006·3.77 MB·English

Language and Morality: Evolution, Altruism,
and Linguistic Moral Mechanisms

Joseph W. Poulshock

A thesis submitted in fulfillment of requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

to
Theoretical and Applied Linguistics
School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences
University of Edinburgh

February 2006
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© Copyright 2006
By
Joseph W. Poulshock

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ABSTRACT

This thesis inquires into how human language relates to morality -- and shows the
ways language enables, extends, and maintains human value systems. Though we
ultimately need to view the relation between language and morality from many
different perspectives -- biological, psychological, sociological, and philosophical -
- the approach here is primarily a linguistic one informed by evolutionary theory.
At first, this study shows how natural selection relates to the problem of altruism
and how language serves human moral ontogeny. Subsequently, the argument
demonstrates how language helps enable cultural group selection. Moreover, as
language helps influence human behavior in an altruistic direction beyond in-group
non-kin (helping facilitate cultural group selection), we also consider how language
can help facilitate altruistic behavior towards out-group non-kin. This therefore
raises the prospect of a limited moral realism in a world of evolutionary processes.
With these issues and possibilities in mind, we consider and analyze the properties
of language that help extend human morality. Specifically, discussion covers how
recursion, linguistic creativity, naming ability, displacement, stimulus freedom,
compositionality, cultural transmission, and categorization extend moral systems.
Moreover, because language so broadly influences morality, the inquiry extends
into how linguistic differences (specifically between English and Japanese) might
also cause subtle differences in moral perception between Japanese and English
speakers.
Lastly, we consider how moral ideas might take on a life of their own, catalytically
propagating in degrees dependent and independent of human intention. That is, we
consider how ideas might become memetic. After considering the serious problems
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of memetics, this approach employs a linguistic version of memetic theory and
considers how psychological, social, and linguistic constraints may cause moral
memes to attain a memetic state and spread by an independent or semi-independent
replicator dynamic. Thus, some moral ideas that we possess through language may
actually possess us.
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Declaration
I hereby declare that this thesis is of my own composition, and
that it contains no material previously submitted for the award of
any other degree. The work reported in this thesis has been
executed by myself, except where due acknowledgement is made
in the text.

Joseph W. Poulshock
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Here is a brief list of acknowledgements where I gratefully confess to a long period
of deep indebtedness to colleagues, family, and friends. Heartfelt thanks go to:

! Jim and Sue Hurford, Jim for excellent supervision, and Sue for the most
pleasant coffee, tea, cookies, and camaraderie.
! Simon Kirby, for challenging me, believing in me, and for the music.
! Miriam Meyerhoff, for positive, insightful, and wise supervision.
! To the LEC Gang: to Andrew Smith for the loudest laugh on the planet, and for
invaluable advice; to Kenny Smith, for teaching me Scottish and for answering
all my questions; to Jimmy Yamauchi, for helpful support and profound insight
into single malt; to Henry Brighton, for increasing my artificial intelligence and
keeping me on my toes; to Jelle Zuidema, for being someone to look up to and
think deeply with; to Anna Parker, Paul Vogt, Viktor Tron, and the many others
who helped make the LEC such a cool place to work.
! To The People of the Common Room: Cassie Mayo, Rob Clark, Dan
Wedgwood, Michael Bennett, Mits Ota, Lynda Hutchinson, Francesca Filiaci,
Maria Luisa Flecha-Garcia, and many others who made eating, drinking, talking,
laughing, and thinking in Edinburgh so enjoyable.
! To colleagues at TCU: to Stephen Franklin -- the ideal mentor; Noyuri Sugitani,
for translating the surveys and for constant encouragement; to Hisakazu Inagaki,
Nobuyuki Takahashi, and KCI, for interest in this work; to Akio Ito and Takanori
Kobayashi for institutional support. I am also grateful to TCU for 2 sabbaticals,
and for giving me the time to complete this task.
! To Hanako Misao, at Saint Luke's International Hospital, for help with statistics.
! To Richard Hamilton, for reminding me of the value this research; to Jeff Schloss
for inspiring visits at Westmont; to Jay Richards and Steve Meyer for
exemplifying gentlemanliness and scholarship; to the Templeton Foundation for
indirectly supporting this research.
! To BB and the support of CJOIS during the final stages of this writing; to Scott
Maddan, for hospitality and friendship that supported this work.
! To my family: thank you all literally -- for everything.
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CONTENTS

Absract.....................................................................................................................v
Declaration.............................................................................................................vii
Acknowledgements.................................................................................................ix
List of Figures........................................................................................................xv
Chapter 1..................................................................................................................1
Introduction..............................................................................................................1
1.1 Language, morality, evolution, and social groups..........................................1
1.2 The Problem of Altruism Language and Social Groups..................................3
1.3 Linguistically Encoded Morality and Cultural Evolution...............................4
1.4 Summary of this Thesis.................................................................................5
Chapter 2..................................................................................................................7
On the Linguistic Basis of Morality..........................................................................7
2.1 Language an Evolutionary Prerequisite to Morality.......................................7
2.2 The Problem of Human Morality Explained by Language..............................9
2.2.1 The Assessment Function.........................................................................9
2.2.2 The Enforcement Function.....................................................................10
2.2.3 The Shared Representation Function......................................................11
2.2.4 The Cooperation Function......................................................................12
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