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    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that If UG were a product of natural selection, we would expect clear homologs in closely related primates, yet no such faculty has been identified in chimpanzees.

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    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence; primate communication systems may harbor UG properties we haven't yet identified or adequately tested.
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    • 2.UG could evolve from non-linguistic cognitive capacities (hierarchical planning, social reasoning) already present in primates without requiring homologous communication structures.
      ?

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    • 3.Selective pressures on human brains differed dramatically (social complexity, teaching, tool use); different selection pressures produce phenotypic divergence even from similar substrates.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Natural selection typically produces homologous structures across related species; absence of UG homologs suggests non-gradual evolutionary origin.
      ?

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    • 2.Chimpanzees lack recursion, displacement, and other core UG properties despite 6 million years of separate evolution, suggesting UG isn't a refinement of ancestral primate communication.
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    • 3.Most complex biological systems show clear precursors in related species; UG's uniqueness demands explanation beyond standard evolutionary mechanisms.
      ?

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