Snip:- >>Among many other things, cf. Wittgenstein on object/picture 'correspondence'. >>Nature tends not to evolve brain mass without a need ... >I have yet to read or hear a convincing argument for this statement, >which >seems to run counter to what I understand about evolution. The statement does not run much counter to my understanding of evolution so I am curious what understanding of evolution it does run up against:- of course, evolutionary understanding is that brain mass is largely taken up with controlling physical functions which is why larger creatures may have bigger brains without necessarily being smarter - but this increase in brain mass does answer a physiological "need", and thus can be explained in evolutionary terms. The intelligence quotient relative to brain size is therefore, in large part, better understood as an aspect of the ratio of brain mass to body mass - this evolution teaches also. Next (evolutionary?) step: insofar as brain mass develops outside the confines of the ratio needed to deal with relative body mass (and merely physiological functions), can't this nevertheless be understood as a response to certain evolutionary pressures or "needs"? My understanding of evolution is that the answer here is 'yes' not 'no': and so I remain curious about the 'understanding' that suggests otherwise. In the same thread Robert Paul wrote:- > Kassewitz was probably getting close to learning the > dolphin words for 'for cough!' Here is another possibility: dolphins (the few freshwater types aside) do not drink water but obtain the water they need through what they eat. In captivity they will drink from a fresh water hose, but will not then eat: because they have no way of distinguishing between being sated through food or liquid (since in their natural habitat it is always through food that they are sated, this distinction would serve no "need"). When deprived of food, dolphins do not die of hunger but of thirst. Ergo: that clicky-shrieky noise is just a gasping for water. Donal Haven't thought this all through, admittedly Sunny England ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html