Language & Self-Consciousness - The Great Leap Forward

[CavemanDoctor]

Peace all,

The more I think about it, the more I realize human language is a key component to the puzzle of our existence insofar as it arose concurrently with a consciousness of self.

2:31 "And He taught Adam the names of all things, then He displayed them to the angels and said: Inform Me of the names of these if you are truthful."

This verse is often taken to mean that God gave humanity the gift of knowledge.  And while I certainly think that is part of it, I actually think the verse may be referring more to the gift of language.  Metaphorically, language is the ability to "name things." 

But, it is much more than that.  Certainly, the main distinction one can draw between human beings and other animals is that, while animals have consciousness, human beings have self-consciousness.  We are aware of our own consciousness.  We know that we know.  I think, in a very real way, human language -- this ability given to us by God -- is a window to the Divine.  With the gift of language, a mental revolution occurred.  A new realm of existence opened up.  And I'm not being facetious, I mean that literally.  With language, the human being -- a local animal constrained by a primate nervous system -- was able to experience the non-local realm of the Divine, was able to transcend spacetime and engage in otherworldly activity for the first time. 

Think of it: our souls, our sense of self, would not exist if not for language.  They go hand in hand.  When you are alone in your head, navigating the interior that is your mental space, you are inevitably engaged in an inner dialogue, an expression of language.  You think "I am hungry," "I am happy," "I am CavemanDoctor," etc. etc. These are all inner expressions of language.  Without language, there would be no sense of "I" with which you identify.  You would not feel a separateness at all.  The language-less soul-less organism would merely be a facet of the universe doing its thing, not unlike a star spewing out radiation, an ocean crashing onto a shore, or an orange tree spawning an orange.

But with this gift given to us by the Divine, the human being has been able to transcend the universe.  Through this transcendence, the universe doubles back on itself.  The human being becomes the eyes through which the universe sees itself, the vehicle through which the universe becomes cognizant of its own existence.  God has given us this gift, and concomitant responsibility.  The human being has become the "khalif" of this material universe (2:30) because he has been given the ability to "name things."

Language and self-consciousness are two sides of the same coin.  The coin is the soul.

Remarkably, paleontological evidence closely aligns with this line of thought.  Date ranges vary but, roughly speaking, the human being (Homo sapiens sapiens) emerged onto the scene roughly 200,000 years ago.  Anatomically speaking, if we were to find a perfectly preserved specimen from 200,000 years ago, it would resemble me and you today.  If you'd carve open its cranium, you'd see the same brain that me and you carry around in our heads today.  And yet, that human being was a drastically different organism.  He used very rudimentary stone-axes, and was by almost all accounts, just an animal.  He might have been able to grunt and point but he had no use of language in the sense we are talking about here. 

This continued for 150,000 years or so.  Then, about 50,000-40,000 years ago, something bizarre happened.  Though the anatomy stayed the same, the human being almost overnight completely and utterly changed.  Tools became inexplicably advanced, visual expression found its way onto cave walls, and by most accounts, human language arose.  This is one of the modern mysteries of evolutionary biology.  So drastic was the change that paleontologists call it The Great Leap Forward.  Language, art, and culture sprang forth from the same brain that existed for 150,000 years prior.  And what bothers evolutionary biologists is that it happened so suddenly.  Materialist reductionists like to think everything happens randomly within the confines of natural selection, and therefore changes are made gradually.  But, the evidence in this case, disagrees.  150,000 years nothing....then suddenly, BOOM.  Massive, massive changes in human behavior without any anatomical change.  Biologists have been backed into a corner and speculate as to a "neural rewiring of the brain" due to some "major genetic mutation."  Of course, this is wild speculation. 

It was as if...gasp, a soul had been suddenly inculcated into Homo sapiens sapiens, changing it from an advanced primate into a full-fledged human being.  The Creator introduced the soul, a Divine spark, into the advanced primate, simultaneously giving rise to language and a concept of consciousness of self. 

[rraza]

hmm..tht does to some degree seem like a possible hypothesis..i always had questions about wat are these "names" tht God taught Adam. very interesting and plausible, though may i ask what are your sources for the evolutionary claims uv posted here regarding this "leap"...would  be very interesting to read more abt this.

[CavemanDoctor]

rraza,

Any decent text on human evolution will talk about it.  In the technical literature, it's known as the Upper Paleolithic revolution.

[OPF]

I think I posted something about this a while back. Perhaps that spark of languistic ability is the "ruh" of God talked about in the quran. Look at the way the creator worked to create us - he used language to code everything from our shape to our personalities. Imagine C++ got so complex that a certain specific line of code gave your program the ability to write programs itself. It would require the support structure & routines of the rest of the program (the brain) to do anything but that single function is "I".

hrough this transcendence, the universe doubles back on itself.  The human being becomes the eyes through which the universe sees itself, the vehicle through which the universe becomes cognizant of its own existence.

This is perhaps the most baffling thing - a human being is like a mirror walking around inside of a hall of mirrors. I wonder if there is something like a single photon trapped perfectly inside the human brain, just oscillating back and forth, the candle that lights them all, never burning away. Something like a miniature singularity. The secret is hidden in every single human egg and sperm cell.

[CavemanDoctor]

I think I posted something about this a while back. Perhaps that spark of languistic ability is the "ruh" of God talked about in the quran. Look at the way the creator worked to create us - he used language to code everything from our shape to our personalities. Imagine C++ got so complex that a certain specific line of code gave your program the ability to write programs itself. It would require the support structure & routines of the rest of the program (the brain) to do anything but that single function is "I".


This is perhaps the most baffling thing - a human being is like a mirror walking around inside of a hall of mirrors. I wonder if there is something like a single photon trapped perfectly inside the human brain, just oscillating back and forth, the candle that lights them all, never burning away. Something like a miniature singularity. The secret is hidden in every single human egg and sperm cell.

Great C++ and hall of mirrors analogies.  Agreed.

I'd be really interested in reading your post if you could dig it up OPF.

[Maisha]

Caveman Doctor...very interesting. Do you think this ability could "evolve" further?

Language is a fascinating tool. I used words for the outside world. But recently, I discovered the true "power" of language for my own self-discovery. Not just the words in themselves, but the way they are used, the hints and insinuations that make one think. To convey...perhaps transfer my thoughts to another. It is a beautiful gift that we have. On a personal level, if I try to read the unspoken language of a person, then I am able make a higher connection with them.

On that note, I shall remain silent....

[SarahY]

Peace CM,

Language and the conscious self hmm maybe. What is our conscience self.. our inner thoughts? Do you ever wonder why some feel guilty and others don?t? Is the mind a conditioned phenomena? A social condition maybe.. maybe not but at least influenced by it. Language evolves, societies evolve, social structures/practices evolve...

Language is part of knowledge.. it?s amazing how we can learn from reading text, images, sounds(different semiotics). from no internet to open exposure to so many books/resources. Language itself has evolved from looking from Shakespeares time till our time the amount of words in a dictionary, to short hand texting. might be interesting to compare today?s English to back then.. 

i know it sounds weird i feel like i?m talking about human development. People go on that these days people don?t create much.. but look at solar energy, computer tech etc.. its all development and i?d say language has a huge play in this

96:4 (Asad) who has taught [man] the use of the pen

But i guess you might think what?s so great about that.. whats that got to do with self-consciousness. All these developments are primarily for humans, for us. Would you think the idea of the self is the driving force for human development. Like if one was to compare humans with other animals we?re rulers of the world.. it has been given to us by God we?re the khalaif elard..

So we?re just executing out self conscience in a way? Do i make sense

i know you talk about self identity.. i?m just trying to think if animals grieve.  I know for some animals it is survival of the fittest.. not sure about others.
I would say animals communicate (use language) though in a different platform than humans..

Hmm realm of the divine you say. For some reason i thought of malaika. How they mention ?adam?(2:31) will spread corruption etc (2:30). Realm of divine in that we have free choice and that trust. Or rather we took the pledge.

about the human being 200,000 years ago it makes me wonder how this kind of data can actually be accurate or even be gathered. The great leap forward might have some gaps too. But interesting there is no actual known reason just somehow people became people.

[Wakas]

peace CD,

I agree. I first read this view on this forum posted by member 'Someone' a few years ago. At the time I didn't quite know or agree with it, but after I studied the parable of adam/mankind, it became quite probable.

[CavemanDoctor]

Peace Sarah and Maisha.  Great posts.  I'm loving the discussion.

Sarah, you mentioned "language is part of knowledge."  While, in a sense, I agree with you, I think it is much more.

When I use the word "language" here, I don't simply mean communication.  After all, almost all life forms communicate in some fashion, not just humans.  Language is not just an accumulation of words that are used to communicate to others.  It is that, of course, in some sense.  But, again it's much more.

Trying to express my thoughts as clearly as I can (ironic, given the topic, heh), but having trouble.  Basically, I think the universe and everything in it did not feel a sense of separateness (the converse of having a sense of "I") until the human being came along.  And language (in the meta way I'm using it here) is a symptom of this separateness.  Before human beings, the universe was just one internal system.  Stars, rocks, even lower animals, all did their thing.  They were all merely different facets of the universe doing their thing.  Different masks of the created unity interacting with each other. 

Then a change happened.  The introduction of the 'nafs' into a particular animal (in this case, an advanced primate) resulted into what we now call human beings.  And what are human beings?  They are the exit out of the chain of this internal feedback loop known as the universe.  They are discontinuity personified.  Little chunks of separateness.  Before human beings, the universe was just the universe.  It only appears as a bunch of separate entities to you or I because we are conditioned as human beings, i.e. I-possessing beings, to think this way.   But this was not always the case.  The introduction of the nafs was mediated through the Divine spark, the Ruh of Allah.  This broke open the the internal loop that was the pre-human universe.  Something which was part of the universe, the human being, was for the first time able to transcend the universe.  Able to step outside of it.  It was literally a second Big Bang, if you want to think about it that way, a second creation.  The first Big Bang was the creation of spacetime and its requisite physical laws.  After almost 14 billion years, a second Big Bang occurred.  This time, the creation of self-consciousness.  The universe, through the human being, was finally able to experience itself as a subject experiencing an object. 

And here's where language comes in.  Our sense of I, the separateness, goes hand in hand with language.  Language isn't just an accumulation of words.  Words are the superficial tools of a deeper structure.  That structure is the subject/object schism, something which did not exist prior to us.  We go through our lives feeling the immediacy of the subject/object split at all times. 

By that, I mean, we see ourselves as experiencers (subjects) of experiences (objects).  What do we learn, as children, that every sentence needs?  A noun and a verb.  A thing which experiences, and an experience which is experienced, in other words.  And this is part of how we approach the world, of course.  It's self-evident.  We think "I am so and so," "I am hungry" "He is over there", etc.  This subject/object split was not possible without the nafs, with language being a symptom of the soul.

Just thinking out loud.  Rambling really.

[David_K]

Peace CavemanDoctor

Remarkably, paleontological evidence closely aligns with this line of thought.  Date ranges vary but, roughly speaking, the human being (Homo sapiens sapiens) emerged onto the scene roughly 200,000 years ago.  Anatomically speaking, if we were to find a perfectly preserved specimen from 200,000 years ago, it would resemble me and you today.  If you'd carve open its cranium, you'd see the same brain that me and you carry around in our heads today.  And yet, that human being was a drastically different organism.  He used very rudimentary stone-axes, and was by almost all accounts, just an animal.  He might have been able to grunt and point but he had no use of language in the sense we are talking about here.  

What you are saying about Homo sapiens is theory from conventional science, and it is not based on facts. The theory of evolution has been disproved by archeological evidence. Archeological evidence shows us that Modern human beings have existed for millions of years on earth (not just 200.000 years).  

In the book, Forbidden Archeology, by Michael A.cremo and Richard Thompson, the following things are stated:

...Over the past few decades, scientists in Africa have uncovered fossil bones that look remarkably human. In 1965, Bryan Patterson and W. W. Howells found a surprisingly modern humerus (upper arm bone) at Kanapoi,Kenya. Scientists judged the humerus to be over 4 million years old.

In 1979, researchers at the Laetoli, Tanzania, site in East Africa discovered footprints in volcanic ash deposits over 3.6 million years old.Mary Leakey and others said the prints were indistinguishable from those of modern humans. To these scientists, this meant only that the human ancestors of 3.6 million years ago had remarkably modern
feet...

...In the decades after Darwin introduced his theory, numerous scientists discovered incised and broken animal bones and shells suggesting that tool-using humans or human precursors existed in the Pliocene (2-5 million years ago), the Miocene (5-25 million years ago), and even earlier. In analyzing cut and broken bones and shells, the discoverers carefully considered and ruled out alternative explanations--such as the action of animals or geological pressure--before concluding that humans were responsible. In some cases, stone tools were found along with the cut and broken bones or shells.

A particularly striking example in this category is a shell displaying a crude yet recognizably human face carved on its outer surface. Reported by geologist H. Stopes to the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1881, this shell, from the Pliocene Red Crag formation in England, is over 2 million years old. According to standard views, humans capable of this level of artistry did not arrive in Europe until about 30,000 or 40,000 years ago. Furthermore, they supposedly did not arise in their African homeland until about 100,000 years ago.

Also, see the information in the link below:

Ancient Skulls and bones
http://www.forbiddenarcheology.com/skbones.htm

Then, about 50,000-40,000 years ago, something bizarre happened. Though the anatomy stayed the same, the human being almost overnight completely and utterly changed. Tools became inexplicably advanced, visual expression found its way onto cave walls, and by most accounts, human language arose.  

No. Tools didn't became inexplicably advanced 50.000-40.000 years ago. Archeological evidence shows us that tools have been advanced for millions of years. Here are 7 advanced tools from the past:

1) A metal vase from the precambrian period which was created 600 000 million years ago.
2) Flint tools from the miocene, 10-12 million years ago have been found in Burma.
3) Metallic spheres that have been found by South african miners in precambrian mineral deposits, are 2.8 billion years old.
4) A mortar and pestle found by by J.H Neale, is 33-55 million years old.
5) Broken stone pestle from Table mountain is more than 9 million years old.
6) A coinlike object in Illinois, was found 114 feet below surface in deposits that are between 200,000 and 400,000 years old.
7) The kingoodie hammer (also called the london hammer), from scotland, was made 360-408 million years ago.

As you can see, from what archeologists have found, advanced tools have existed for millions of years. By the way, how could ape like creatures create such advanced tools? That would be nonsense. The tools are not created by ape like creatures. These tools are without a shadow of doubt created by human beings. The scientists who promote the theory of evolution, are building the theory on foundations of falsehood. And the theory contradicts lots of archeological evidence.

It was as if...gasp, a soul had been suddenly inculcated into Homo sapiens sapiens, changing it from an advanced primate into a full-fledged human being.  The Creator introduced the soul, a Divine spark, into the advanced primate, simultaneously giving rise to language and a concept of consciousness of self.  

The theory of evolution tells us that Mankind were ape like creatures and evolved into human beings. But how can something perfect evolve? That would be illogical. Since god creates everything perfect, there is no need for evolution. Something which is created perfect does not need to be improved. God created everything perfect:

Quran 32:7
The One who perfected everything He created and He began the creation of the human from clay.

Quran 15:28
Your Lord said to the angels: "I am creating a human from hardened clay of aged mud."

Quran 15:29
"So when I perfect him, and blow of My Spirit in him, you shall fall prostrate to
him."

Quran 79:27
Are you a more powerful creation than the sky which He built?

Quran 79:28
He raised its height, and perfected it.

The archeological evidence that shows us that modern human beings have lived for millions of years, proves without doubt that apes were not our ancestors. This is fact. I higly recommend the book "Forbidden Archeology" by Michael A.cremo. However, the book is very long, and takes some time to read. So if your time is limited, you can watch the controversial NBC film, were Michael A.cremo, Graham hancock and other researchers explain why the conventional archeological theories are wrong and are based on falsehood. The information in the book I recommend, is also explained in the film. The film consists of 35 parts on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Mysterious+origins+of+man1+of+35&aq=f

You can read about the film here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mysterious_Origins_of_Man

Reference:
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/ciencia_forbiddenarcheology01.htm
http://www.book-of-thoth.com/thebook/index.php/Kingoodie_hammer