who asked the first question? - International Research Center For ...

333With the emergence of the ability to ask questions human language gained the lastof three main language functions - declarations, commands and questions (about thesethree functions of language see de Laguna, 1963 [1927]). G. Revesz wrote about threefunctions of language as well: imperative, indicative and interrogative (Revesz, 1956).We can look at the entire evolution of the human species and the development ofhuman society and civilization from the point of view of information exchange meansavailable in a society. We could distinguish several most important changes in theevolution of human information exchange. The ability to ask questions was the first andtruly revolutionary change in this chain of technologies to exchange information viadirect communication. Human dialogical language, intelligence, mental cooperation and aself-developing brain emerged together with the ability to ask questions. We can even saythat all the following revolutionary changes in information exchange were just thetechnical means of enhancing our ability and desire to exchange information. After thiswe never stopped inventing different ways of asking each other questions. So we startedasking questions using speech (do not forget – we started asking questions before theadvance of articulated speech!), later – written language, handwritten and publishedbooks, telephone, radio, TV and the Internet. Throughout our history as a species we havebeen asking questions of each other, of other generations, and even of people fromdifferent countries and continents we will never know, apart from a small moment ofshared human behavior when we asked for the information that we needed and they knewthe answer.• So, Who asked the first question:or “Interrogo Ergo Cogito”Here we are, answering the question of questions, posed in the title of this book. Itis a pity we will never know the name of the first individual who asked the first questionto mark the turning point in the long process of human evolution, but there is anotherquite precise way to answer this question:The first question was asked by the first human being.It does not matter whether it was a woman or man. What matters is the hugeadvantage and the instant gratification that the ability of asking questions would give tothe first questioning human being. Most likely this was a result of genetic mutation,although the development of ape and then hominid mental ability was heading towardsthis crucial point, so the appearance of the “questioning gene” must have been arelatively smooth transaction. Hominid group-based survival strategy on the ground,everyday co-operational activity, an increased load of communication and more complexsocial politics within the bigger groups was leading towards this revolutionary change incommunication. The advantage that the first questioning human gained from this newability must have been so big that with every new generation the number of questioninghumans (transmitted genetically from the first human individual) must have increasedlike a bushfire.Was the ability to ask questions initially used in everyday referentialcommunication or in ritual singing with possibly a referential text? I have already