Special Issues

Combinatoriality and Compositionality in Apes, Hominins, Humans, and Birds was published in the International Journal of Primatology in 2024. The issue is guest edited by Daniela Rodrigues, Michael Pleyer, Stefan Hartmann, and me. 

The idea for this volume originated at Protolang 6, which I chaired in Lisbon at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. The launch was celebrated at the inaugural Joint Conference for Language Evolution, held in Japan in 2022. Recordings of the launch and selected talks can be viewed here.

In the issue, primatologists, linguists, neuro-psychologists, ethologists, and philosophers of science contemplate the different ways in which combinatorial (associative) and compositional (hierarchical) behavior can be identified, defined, and studied as they evolve over time.  

The editorial introduction can be read here, and my paper on Combinatoriality and Compositionality in Everyday Primate Skills is available here. In this work, I build on my previous research in hierarchy theory to distinguish combinatorial from compositional behavior. I define combinatorial skills as aggregational or linearly hierarchical depending on whether the skill occurs momentarily in space or unfolds sequentially over time. Compositional skills are defined as either nested or interactionally hierarchical, depending on whether the skill results in new constructs or new interactions between existing constructs. I apply the distinctions made to everyday primate skills such as locomotion, nesting, and eating and conclude that compositionality is required for all.

Published in 2024, Evolving (Proto)Language/s is a topical collection guest edited by Monika Boruta Żywiczyńska, Sverker Johansson, Lorraine McCune, and me for Lingua, International Review of General Linguistics. 

The collection bundles several theories on the origin and evolution of (proto)language/s that were first presented at Protolang 6. The general conclusion of the collection is that theories on protolanguage are diverse, and it is likely that multiple protolanguages existed.

The editorial introduction can be read here.

Language & Worldviews is guest edited for Topoi by me, Diana Couto, Matthieu Fontaine, Lorenzo Magnani, and Selene Arfini. The issue was published in 2022. Recordings of the launch and selected talks can be watched here.

The volume is an outgrowth of a satellite workshop I chaired at Protolang 6 on the conceptualization of language throughout the ages. The issue bundles papers by philosophers, logicians, cognitive scientists, and linguists that each provide a unique perspective on what language is and how it enables cognition, communication, sociocultural lifeways, and scientific inquiry. 

The editorial introduction and my paper on Defining Communication and Language from Within a Pluralistic Evolutionary Worldview can be read here. In the latter paper, I define communication as the evolution of physical, biochemical, cellular, community, and technological information exchange. I define language as community communication whereby the information exchanged comprises evolving individual and group-constructed knowledge and beliefs, that are enacted, narrated, or otherwise conveyed by evolving rule-governed and meaningful symbol systems, that are grounded, interpreted, and used from within evolving embodied, cognitive, ecological, sociocultural, and technological niches.

Evolutionary Epistemology is guest edited by me and Michael Bradie for the Journal for General Philosophy of Science. The volume was published in 2021. The launch and selected talks can be viewed here. 

The issue is an outgrowth of a special call Michael and I issued on the subject of evolutionary epistemology, a field in the philosophy of science concerned with how evolutionary theory alters our traditional notions of philosophy in general and epistemology in particular.

Our editorial introduction, titled Evolutionary Epistemology: Two Research Avenues, Three Schools, and A Single and Shared Agenda, distinguishes between three phases of evolutionary epistemology.  In my paper, Hierarchies, Networks, and Causality: The Applied Evolutionary Epistemological Approach, I examine how hierarchy theory sheds light on how we define units, levels, mechanisms and processes of evolution, and how hierarchies, in turn, enable us to distinguish between upward, downward, and what I call reticulate causation. Reticulate causation occurs when units from different entities interact horizontally, influencing one another's behavior in the present and possibly in the future. 

Language Evolution: Focus on Mechanisms, guest edited by Przemyslaw Zywiczynski, Slawomir Wacewicz, and me, was published in Language Sciences in 2017.

The issue bundles papers on (proto)language, grammaticalization, and narration, each of which focuses on the mechanisms needed to evolve them. 

The editorial introduction and my paper on What are the levels and mechanisms/processes of language evolution? can be read here. In the paper, I first investigate how scholars define language and then use hierarchy theory to identify the units, levels, and mechanisms of language evolution. The work builds upon my approach that I call Applied Evolutionary Epistemology.

Evolutionary Patterns is an issue I guest edited for Evolutionary Biology in 2016. The cover, designed by Evelyne Kolijn, plays with depictions of trees and a network of life, exploring what they represent.

The issue is a follow-up to a conference I chaired in 2013 on Horizontal and Vertical, Micro- and Macro-Evolutionary Patterns in Biology and the Sociocultural Sciences. The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the John Tempelton Foundation sponsored the event. Recordings of the talks are available for viewing here.

The editorial introduction I wrote on Converging Evolutionary Patterns in Life and Culture can be read here. My paper in this issue is titled Time: The Biggest Pattern in Natural History Research. In the latter paper, I demonstrate that time is a subject of human cultural and cognitive learning, and I show how different notions of time influence our conceptualization of evolution.

The double special issue Darwin evaluated by contemporary evolutionary and philosophical theories was edited by Francisco Carrapiço, Marco Pina, André Levy, and Helena Abreu and me for Theory in Biosciences in 2010.

The issue is an outgrowth of a conference I chaired in 2009 to celebrate the Darwin year. The issue features papers on experimental Darwinian evolution, punctuated equilibria, symbiogenesis, species concepts, linguistic, sociocultural, and political evolution.

The editorial introduction, titled Darwin's legacy, can be downloaded here. My paper in this issue is on Evolutionary epistemology as a scientific method: a new look upon the units and levels of evolution debate.  This is my first paper on what I now refer to as Applied Evolutionary Epistemology. AEE is a methodology that enables the identification, analysis, and evaluation of units, levels, and mechanisms of evolution, each of which require hierarchy theory to become combined in theories of evolution. The approach is called applied because it builds upon older debates in evolutionary epistemology regarding the units and levels of Darwinian evolution. AEE also takes into account non-Darwinian mechanisms of evolution.