The Evolutionary Emergence of Language

Language has no counterpart in the animal world. Unique to Homo sapiens, it
appears inseparable from human nature. But how, when and why did it emerge?
The contributors to this volume – linguists, anthropologists, cognitive scientists and
others – adopt a modern Darwinian perspective to offer a bold synthesis of the human and natural sciences. As a feature of human social intelligence, language evolution is driven by biologically anomalous levels of social cooperation. Phonetic competence correspondingly reflects social pressures for vocal imitation, learning and other forms of social transmission. Distinctively human social and cultural strategies gave rise to the complex syntactic structure of speech. This book, presenting language as a remarkable social adaptation, testifies to the growing influence of evolutionary thinking in contemporary linguistics. It will be welcomed by all those interested in human evolution, evolutionary psychology, linguistic anthropology and general
linguistics.

Content and Consciousness by Daniel C. Dennett

Content and Consciousness
Daniel C. Dennett










A pioneering work in the philosophy of mind, Content and Consciousness brings together the approaches of philosophers and scientists to the mind--a connection that must occur if genuine analysis of the mind is to be made.

Evolution by Douglas J. Futuyma

In its scope and emphases, Evolution is a readily recognized descendant of the author's previous textbook, Evolutionary Biology. However, it is much shorter and is exclusively directed toward an undergraduate audience. Teachers and students will find the list of important concepts and terms in each chapter a helpful guide, and will appreciate the radically different dynamic figures and lively photographs. The content of all chapters has been updated, and material has been reorganized into new chapters such as "Conflict and Cooperation" and "How To Be Fit." Contributors Scott V. Edwards and John R. True have provided authoritative chapters on "Evolution of Genes and Genomes" and "Development and Evolution," two of the most rapidly developing subjects in evolutionary biology. A new final chapter on "Evolutionary Science, Creationism, and Society" treats such topics as the nature of science and the practical applications of evolutionary biology.

Unmasking Muhammad

“Muslims need to write an honest biography of the Prophet that does not shun the truth, least of
all cover it up with the dishonest subterfuge of condescending the Western scholars”.
------ Ibn Warraq, 2000, p. 21.
Towards the beginning of last century, there was a rising interest among the Western scholars to
investigate the origins of Islam and its founder, i.e., Prophet Muhammad. For this they had used
highest standard of historical scholarship available at that time. Their aim was to collect
authentic information about Muhammad and the rise of early Islam by carefully separating the
facts from fictions. In some ways the research on Muhammad was inspired by a similar type of
investigation of Christianity made famous by Albert Schweitzer’s famous work ‘The Quest of
the Historical Jesus’.

Charles Darwin and The Origin of Species

In 1985, the Italian scientist Antonella La Vergata remarked that the

‘‘Darwin’s-place-in-history approach’’ dominated writing about Darwin
and the development of the theory of evolution before 1960. Darwin
was the colossus who stood above every other scientist in the nineteenth
century when it came to developing a theory about the origin
of life. La Vergata’s argument was that historians and scientists who
used this approach ignored the important contributions made by Darwin’s
contemporaries as well as other scientists who preceded and followed
him. Even worse, this approach ignored the large number of
people to whom Darwin wrote letters either to discuss the research he
was doing or to obtain the answers to questions he had. Darwin should
be viewed as part of a community even if he was the central figure in
this community.1 While acknowledging La Vergata’s criticism, this book