Chapter 7 - Instinct
Ridley describes some examples of how instinct is like for animals, and how humans don't NEED to rely on instincts, but instead we learn. Chomsky studied the way human beings spoke, and came to a conclusion that there are similarities to all languages that bore witness to a universal human grammar. Ridley discusses how we can change a statement in English by just changing one word to the front, making it a question. There are particular parts in the brain that can cause one to lose the knowledge of how to use sentences that are grammatically correct. English is something we can learn by reading books, but the environment allows us to improve our English. All human beings have instinct, but that doesn't mean that it is developed equally. There are many people who are more advanced than others who could just be slower in learning grammar.
Citation:
Ridley, Matt. Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters. New York: HarperCollins, 1999. Print.
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