Sexual Divisions and Society: Process and Change ed. by Diana Leonard Barker and Sheila Allen (review)

158 certainly have a special capacity for language-learning. for example. It is part of human nature in the way that the capacity to learn how to fly or to warble is part of bird nature. It is (according to Chomsky) an instinct. And to each special capacity-whether for intuitive, implicit, unconscious or for explicit, conscious knowledge-there are limits. varying widely from individual to individual: 'At these limits. . . we find various forms of intellectual play. and significant variation among individuals . . .. As creative mindsapproach the limitsof cognitive capacity. not only will the act of creation be limited to a talented few, but even the appreciation or comprehension of what has been created. If cognitive domains are roughly comparable in complexity and potential scope, such limits might be approached at more or less the same time in various domains, giving rise to a "crisis of modernism." marked by a sharp decline in the general accessibility of the products of creative minds. a blurring of the distinction between art and puzzle, and a sharp increase in "professionalism" in intellectual life, affecting not only those who produce creative work but also its potential audience. Mockery ofconventionsthat are. ultimately. grounded in human cognitive capacity might be expected to become virtually an art form in itself. at this stage of cultural evolution. I t may be that something of the sort has been happening in recent history [p. 1251: What special capacities humans have and what the limits are of each person are (Chomsky insists) empirical questions to be decided only by reference to empirical observations: he rejects Empiricism but not empirical tests. Indeed. he rejects it because it fails these tests-because it is so poorly confirmed by empirical observations. He cites evidence, for instance. that white rats exceed even the brightest college students in maze-learning (p. 19).But his best evidence. ofcourse. is observations of languagelearning . At a very early age. virtually all children-and no members of any other species-acquire intuitive. implicit. unconscious knowledge of a language. a system of rules so incredibly complex that no linguist has ever acquired complete explicit. conscious knowledge of it. Could a general capacity for induction permit all children to do unconsciously what Chomsky himself cannot do consciously? Children learn a language, moreover. without being taught it. They need only be exposed to it. Indeed. once exposed to it, they cannot choose but learn it. What is more. they clearly do not learn it by imitation-by memorizing the sentences they are exposed to. They have ii capacity for uttering an infinite number of sentences; and-apart from a few dozen sentences like 'Hello' and 'What time is it'sentences they do utter are unique: precisely those words in precisely that order have not before been uttered in the history of the language. The Sciences, the Humanities and the Technological Threat. W. Roy Niblett. ed. Univ. London Press, London. IY75. 168 pp. Reviewed by John Scott Willson' This collection of I2 essays belongs to the series entitled Higher Education Today. The essays were originally written for colloquia held during the early 1970s in the U.S.A. and the United Kingdom. The title of the book is rather misleading. as the prospective reader may think that topics such as pollution. ntiL!ear warfare and genetic engineering are to be discussed. In fact. the phrase 'technological threat' refers to the premise that the dominating position of technology in industrial societies and its influence upon higher education is resulting in graduates who are lacking in some of the ideas, beliefs and standards that characterize humanity. In the first part the fragmented organizational structures and curricula within the multiversity are criticized. and it is suggested that it is necessary to take a fresh look at the purpose of higher education. Close coktboration between the natural sciences. social scienccs and the humanities is essential, and this could be achieved by interdisciplinary studies based 011 colloquia involving graduatesand post graduates. Unfortunately. it isclear that integration even between closely related disciplines is *The Manchestcr Grammar School. Old Hall Lane. Manchester M 13 OXT. England. hindered b] the insular attitudes of specialists and professional associations. The second part of the...