Who are your favourite living thinkers / intellectuals?

Nim Chimpsky, something of a towering intellect, for a non-human primate. Unfortunately deceased, however. So maybe Richard Dawkins, even though he has not mastered sign language, as far as I know..

Nim Chimpsky, something of a towering intellect, for a non-human primate. Unfortunately deceased, however. So maybe Richard Dawkins, even though he has not mastered sign language, as far as I know..

hehe Martin  "signs were used mainly as tools to obtain rewards" - and in what way is that not what most humans do??

I've had a quick "google" for Richard Dawkins and sign language - he's doing lectures with sign language support so perhaps you're right.

On a Pythonesque perspective perhaps they both might leave a sandal or gourd or two around... :-)

A little bit of language, at great effort, with very limited success. It is kind of evidence for his theory:

"""

After reviewing the results, Terrace concluded that Nim mimicked signs from his teachers in order to get a reward. Nim learned a variety of signs through a process of reinforcement, but these signs were not a result of creative or spontaneous language use.

"""

His theory is that we learning with poverty of stimulus means there is a LAD. The symmetries of languages across cultures also points to this. Chimps don't, or have a very primitive version. But anyways, interesting reminder.

I find that some criticising him did not read him, nor know he is one of the most cited scholars ever. But he can indeed get things wrong as well, but this isnt one imho.

I do suspect you were just joking but anyways, I like context.