From dad and mum to god and society:
Kin terms appear to be a language universal.
They are transmitted through child-directed speech.
They conflate natural concepts and social concepts in our minds.
They are the moral essence of human cultural evolution.
Blog
Children’s Pretence
A scientific perspective on social reality:
We illustrate how scientists confuse society with nature.
Institutions are fundamentally like children’s pretend play.
The moral nature of language makes that social reality appear objective.
We propose a definition of morality as a linguistic cognitive conflation.