Experiencing Language

The evolutionary relationship between human linguistic capacity and humans' emotional make-up has not, as yet, received focused attention. Was the evolution of language in our lineage possible because early hominines were emotionally different from their ancestors, and, if so, in what ways? Has language altered human emotions? We discuss and develop recent proposals that an important precondition for the evolution of human language was the evolution of social emotions in pre-linguistic humans. We suggest that as language evolved, it altered important aspects of human emotionality, leading to a co-evolutionary feedback between human linguistic ability and human emotions. Presented by Eva Jablonka, Daniel Dor, Simona Ginsburg (Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science, Tel Aviv University, Israel).