Terrence Deacon
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Terrence William Deacon (born 1950) is an American neuroanthropologist (Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology,
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
1984). He taught at Harvard for eight years, relocated to
Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...
in 1992, and is currently Professor of
Anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...
and member of the
Cognitive Science Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary, scientific study of the mind and its processes. It examines the nature, the tasks, and the functions of cognition (in a broad sense). Mental faculties of concern to cognitive scientists include percep ...
Faculty at the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
.


Theoretical interests

Deacon's theoretical interests include the study of evolution-like processes at multiple levels, including their role in
embryonic development In developmental biology, animal embryonic development, also known as animal embryogenesis, is the developmental stage of an animal embryo. Embryonic development starts with the fertilization of an egg cell (ovum) by a sperm, sperm cell (spermat ...
, neural signal processing,
language change Language change is the process of alteration in the features of a single language, or of languages in general, over time. It is studied in several subfields of linguistics: historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, and evolutionary linguistic ...
, social processes, and focusing especially on how these different processes interact and depend on each other. He has long stated an interest in developing a scientific
semiotics Semiotics ( ) is the systematic study of sign processes and the communication of meaning. In semiotics, a sign is defined as anything that communicates intentional and unintentional meaning or feelings to the sign's interpreter. Semiosis is a ...
(particularly biosemiotics) that would contribute to both linguistic theory and cognitive neuroscience.http://anthropology.berkeley.edu/users/terrence-w-deacon UC Berkeley faculty profile


Fields of research

Deacon's research combines human evolutionary biology and neuroscience, with the aim of investigating the evolution of human cognition. His work extends from laboratory-based cellular-molecular neurobiology to the study of
semiotic Semiotics ( ) is the systematic study of semiosis, sign processes and the communication of Meaning (semiotics), meaning. In semiotics, a Sign (semiotics), sign is defined as anything that communicates intentional and unintentional meaning or feel ...
processes underlying animal and human
communication Communication is commonly defined as the transmission of information. Its precise definition is disputed and there are disagreements about whether Intention, unintentional or failed transmissions are included and whether communication not onl ...
, especially
language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...
and language origins. His neurobiological research is focused on determining the nature of the human divergence from typical primate brain
anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...
, the cellular-molecular mechanisms producing this difference, and the correlations between these anatomical differences and special human cognitive abilities, again, particularly language.


Work

His 1997 book, ''
The Symbolic Species ''The Symbolic Species'' is a 1997 book by biological anthropologist Terrence Deacon on the evolution of language. Combining perspectives from neurobiology, evolutionary theory, linguistics, and semiotics Semiotics ( ) is the systematic stu ...
: The Co-evolution of Language and the Brain'' is widely considered a seminal work in the subject of evolutionary cognition. His approach to semiotics, thoroughly described in the book, is fueled by a career-long interest in the ideas of the late 19th-century American philosopher,
Charles Sanders Peirce Charles Sanders Peirce ( ; September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American scientist, mathematician, logician, and philosopher who is sometimes known as "the father of pragmatism". According to philosopher Paul Weiss (philosopher), Paul ...
. In it, he uses the metaphors of ''parasite'' and ''host'' to describe language and the brain, respectively, arguing that the structures of language have co-evolved to adapt to their brain hosts. His 2011 book, '' Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter'', explores the properties of life, the emergence of consciousness, and the relationship between evolutionary and semiotic processes. The book speculates on how properties such as information, value, purpose, meaning, and end-directed behavior emerged from physics and chemistry. Critics of the book argue that Deacon has drawn heavily from the works of Alicia Juarrero and
Evan Thompson Evan Thompson (born 1962) is a professor of philosophy at the University of British Columbia, specializing in cognitive science, phenomenology, philosophy of mind, and cross-cultural philosophy, particularly Buddhist philosophy in dialogue with We ...
without providing full citations or references, but a UC Berkeley investigation exonerated Deacon. In contrast to the arguments presented by Juarrero in ''Dynamics in Action'' (1999, MIT Press) and by Thompson in ''Mind in Life'' (2007, Belknap Press and Harvard University Press), Deacon explicitly rejects claims that living or mental phenomena can be explained by
dynamical systems In mathematics, a dynamical system is a system in which a Function (mathematics), function describes the time dependence of a Point (geometry), point in an ambient space, such as in a parametric curve. Examples include the mathematical models ...
approaches.''Incomplete Nature'', pp. 143-181 Instead, Deacon argues that life- or mind-like properties only emerge from a higher-order reciprocal relationship between self-organizing processes.


Bibliography


Books

* ''
The Symbolic Species ''The Symbolic Species'' is a 1997 book by biological anthropologist Terrence Deacon on the evolution of language. Combining perspectives from neurobiology, evolutionary theory, linguistics, and semiotics Semiotics ( ) is the systematic stu ...
: The Co-evolution of Language and the Brain.'' New York: W.W. Norton & Company. 1997. * '' Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter.'' New York: W.W. Norton & Company. 2011.


Articles and essays

* Deacon, T.W. (1989). "Holism and associationism in neuropsychology: an anatomical synthesis." in E. Perecman (Ed.), ''Integrating Theory and Practice in Clinical Neuropsychology.'' Erlbaum. Hilsdale, NJ. 1-47. * Deacon, T.W. (1990). "Rethinking mammalian brain evolution." ''Am Zool.'' 30:629–705. * Deacon, T.W. (1997). "What makes the human brain different?" ''Annu. Rev. Anthropol.'' 26: 337-57. * Deacon, T.W. (2001). "Heterochrony in brain evolution." In Parker et al. (eds.), ''Biology, Brains, and Behavior.'' SAR Press, pp. 41–88. * Deacon, T.W. (2006). "Emergence: The Hole at the Wheel’s Hub." Chapter 5 in P. Clayton & P. Davies (Eds.), ''The Re-Emergence of Emergence: The Emergentist Hypothesis from Science to Religion.'' Oxford University Press, pp. 111–150. * Deacon, T.W. (2006). "Reciprocal linkage between self-organizing processes is sufficient for self-reproduction and evolvability." ''Biological Theory'' 1(2):136-149. * Deacon, T.W. (2007). "Shannon-Boltzmann-Darwin: Redefining Information. Part 1." ''Cognitive Semiotics'' 1:123-148. * Deacon, T.W. (2008). "Shannon-Boltzmann-Darwin: Redefining Information. Part 2." ''Cognitive Semiotics'' 2:167-194. * Kull, Kalevi; Deacon, Terrence; Emmeche, Claus; Hoffmeyer, Jesper; Stjernfelt, Frederik. (2009)
Theses on biosemiotics: Prolegomena to a theoretical biology.
''Biological Theory'' 4(2): 167–173. * Deacon, T.W. (2010). "A role for relaxed selection in the evolution of the language capacity." ''PNAS.''107:9000-9006. * Deacon, T.W. (2010). "On the Human: Rethinking the natural selection of human language


External links


Terrence Deacon's home page
at the University of California, Berkeley - including online publications
Teleodynamics.org
for a repository of publications

on the co-evolution of language and the brain

a biography in connection with his participation in “God, Matter, and Information: What is Ultimate?”, a 2006 symposium in Copenhagen.
''Chronicle of Higher Education'' article on UC-Berkeley's exoneration of Deacon (''Incomplete Nature'' controversy)


See also

* Entention


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Deacon, Terrence Living people American semioticians 21st-century American anthropologists Western Washington University alumni American theoretical biologists Human evolution theorists University of California, Berkeley faculty Boston University faculty Harvard University faculty Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni 1950 births New England Complex Systems Institute