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Linguistics and the Environment

isabell.the.polyglot's picture

I would like for us to talk about what exactly "an ecological form of intelligence" is, because Bowers talks about it but I'm not entirely sure what this would entail. Does this mean that though we think of intelligence as differing on an individual level, it is in fact whole populations who are not ecologically intelligent, and this is why we view the environment ignorantly? I think she is talking about intelligence on the population scale rather than on the individual level. 

Also, I thought when she said "Other assumptions include the idea that change is an inherently progressive force, that this is a human-centered universe, that mechanism provides the best explanatory framework for understanding organic processes, that language is a conduit in a sender/receiver process of communication, that traditions limit the individual's freedom and self-discovery, that (still for some) patriarchy was part of the original creative process, and that free markets have the same standing as the law of gravity", it was interesting in that she mentions a lot of problematic beliefs that still pervade our current society.