Words, gestures, brains and caves. Remarks on the material bases of language

In this paper, I reconsider a number of crucial moments of modern and contemporary investigations of language, mind and brain, focusing on the grow- ing understanding of the material bases of language. I first question the view that the notion of language as grounded on the body and social interaction is a result of Darwinism and point out that such view is rooted in modern philos- ophy, from Descartes to the Enlightenment. I also argue that, even in post-Dar- winian thought, the critique of solipsism and the idea that linguistic meaning re- quires the whole body were developed independently of Darwinism. I point out that the neural correlates of linguistic comprehension, linguistic production and writing have been long separated in neuroscience and neuropsychology. On this background, in the concluding section, I examine the problem of the separation and interdependence of orality and writing.