Evolution of Cognition

This paper explores a Rastafari perspective on consciousness development and relates this to developmental stage theories of consciousness evolution from the psychology of religion. The empirical material is from fieldwork on an online Rastafari community with global reach but run by a group based in Trinidad. The people on this particular forum align with the “spiritual, but not religious” trend in contemporary religiosity, which means they are more focused on interior questions of consciousness raising than on religious externals. This paper (...) interprets empirical material from the dialogues on this forum in light of Rastafari theorist Dennis Forsythe. It compares this Rastafari theory of stages of consciousness, symbolized by the animals Anancy, lion, and lamb, to developmental theories of consciousness evolution. These are drawn from psychology and the psychology of religion (Maslow 1970; Kohlberg 1981; Fowler 1981; Gilligan 1982; Wilber 2007), which focus on preconventional, traditional, modern, pluralist, and integral stages. (shrink)

What makes fast, cumulative cultural evolution work? Where did it come from? Why is it the sole preserve of humans? We set out a self-assembly hypothesis: cultural evolution evolved culturally. We present an evolutionary account that shows this hypothesis to be coherent, plausible, and worthy of further investigation. It has the following steps: (0) in common with other animals, early hominins had significant capacity for social learning; (1) knowledge and skills learned by offspring from their parents began to spread because (...) bearers had more offspring, a process we call CS1 (or Cultural Selection 1); (2) CS1 shaped attentional learning biases; (3) these attentional biases were augmented by explicit learning biases (judgements about what should be copied from whom). Explicit learning biases enabled (4) the high-fidelity, exclusive copying required for fast cultural accumulation of knowledge and skills by a process we call CS2 (or Cultural Selection 2), and (5) the emergence of cognitive processes such as imitation, mindreading and metacognition – ‘cognitive gadgets’ specialised for cultural learning. This self-assembly hypothesis is consistent with archaeological evidence that the stone tools used by early hominins were not dependent on fast, cumulative cultural evolution, and suggests new priorities for research on ‘animal culture’. (shrink)

A crucial question for artificial cognition systems is what meaning is and how it arises. In pursuit of that question, this paper extends earlier work in which we show that emergence of simple signaling in biologically inspired models using arrays of locally interactive agents. Communities of "communicators" develop in an environment of wandering food sources and predators using any of a variety of mechanisms: imitation of successful neighbors, localized genetic algorithms and partial neural net training on successful neighbors. Here we (...) focus on environmental variability, comparing results for environments with (a) constant resources, (b) random resources, and (c) cycles of "boom and bust." In both simple and complex models across all three mechanisms of strategy change, the emergence of communication is strongly favored by cycles of "boom and bust." These results are particularly intriguing given the importance of environmental variability in fields as diverse as psychology, ecology and cultural anthropology. (shrink)

The self-domestication hypothesis suggests that, like mammalian domesticates, humans have gone through a process of selection against aggression – a process that in the case of humans was self-induced. Here, we extend previous proposals and suggest that what underlies human social evolution is selection for socially mediated emotional control and plasticity. In the first part of the paper we highlight general features of human social evolution, which, we argue, is more similar to that of other social mammals than to that (...) of mammalian domesticates and is therefore incompatible with the notion of human self-domestication. In the second part, we discuss the unique aspects of human evolution and propose that emotional control and social motivation in humans evolved during two major, partially overlapping stages. The first stage, which followed the emergence of mimetic communication, the beginnings of musical engagement, and mimesis-related cognition, required socially mediated emotional plasticity and was accompanied by new social emotions. The second stage followed the emergence of language, when individuals began to instruct the imagination of their interlocutors, and to rely even more extensively on emotional plasticity and culturally learned emotional control. This account further illustrates the significant differences between humans and domesticates, thus challenging the notion of human self-domestication. (shrink)

For thousands of years, various spiritual traditions and social activists have appealed to humans to adopt compassionate ways of living to address the suffering of life. Yet, along with our potential for compassion and self-sacrifice, the last few thousand years of wars, slavery, tortures, and holocausts have shown humans can be extraordinarily selfish, callous, vicious, and cruel. While there has been considerable engagement with these issues, particularly in the area of moral psychology and ethics, this paper explores an evolutionary analysis (...) relating to evolved resource-regulation strategies that can be called “care and share” versus “control and hold.” Control and hold are typical of primates that operate through intimidatory social hierarchies. Care and share are less common in non-human primates, but evolved radically in humans during our hunter-gatherer stage when our ancestors lived in relatively interdependent, small, mobile groups. In these groups, individualistic, self-focus, and self-promoting control and hold strategies were shunned and shamed. These caring and sharing hunter-gatherer lifestyles also created the social contexts for the evolution of new forms of childcare and complex human competencies for language, reasoning, planning, empathy, and self-awareness. As a result of our new ‘intelligence’, our ancestors developed agriculture that reduced mobility, increased group size, resource availability and storage, and resource competition. These re-introduced competing for, rather than sharing of, resources and advantaged those who now pursue control and hold strategies. Many of our most typical forms of oppressive and anti-compassionate behavior are the result of these strategies. Rather than thinking about individuals competing with one another, we can also consider these different resource regulation strategies as competing within populations shaping psychophysiological patterns; both wealth and poverty change the brain. One of the challenges to creating a more compassionate society is to find ways to create the social and economic conditions that regulate control and hold strategies and promote care and share. No easy task. (shrink)

In this chapter I present the thesis of Proper Embodiment: the claim that (at least some of) the details of our physiology matter to cognition and consciousness in a fundamental way. This thesis is composed of two sub-claims: (1) if we are to design, build, or evolve artificial systems that are cognitive in the way that we are, these systems will have to be internally embodied, and (2) the exploitation of the particular internal embodiment that allows systems to evolve solutions (...) with greatly decreased computational complexity – and thus to be flexible and adaptive in the ways that are characteristic of cognitive systems – means that the orthodox distinction between algorithm and implementation is undermined. Evolved cognitive systems are therefore likely not to instantiate the distinction between phenomenology, algorithm, and implementation. The leaky levels evident in evolved cognitive systems motivate an extension of orthodox embodied cognitive science to the internal, affective, “gooey” realm that has so far only been embraced by those in the enactive tradition. This suggests that if we are to build artificial systems that will be genuinely cognitive they will have to incorporate parts of the gooey realm currently considered to be “mere implementation.”. (shrink)

Criticisms of the “container” model of pregnancy picturing female and embryo as separate entities multiply in various philosophical and scientific contexts during the last decades. In this paper, we examine how this model underlies received views of pregnancy in evolutionary biology, in the characterization of the transition from oviparity to viviparity in mammals and in the selectionist explanations of pregnancy as an evolutionary strategy. In contrast, recent evo-devo studies on eutherian reproduction, including the role of inflammation and new maternal cell (...) types, gather evidence in favor of considering pregnancy as an evolved relational novelty. Our thesis is that from this perspective we can identify the emergence of a new historical individual in evolution. In evo-devo, historical units are conceptualized as evolved entities which fulfill two main criteria, their continuous persistence and their non-exchangeability. As pregnancy can be individuated in this way, we contend that pregnant females are historical individuals. We argue that historical individuality differs from, and coexists with, other views of biological individuality as applied to pregnancy, but brings forward an important new insight which might help dissolve misguided conceptions. (shrink)

The concept, benefits and recommendations for the cultivation of compassion have been recognized in the contemplative traditions for thousands of years. In the last 30 years or so, the study of compassion has revealed it to have major physiological and psychological effects influencing well-being, addressing mental health difficulties, and promoting prosocial behavior. This paper outlines an evolution informed biopsychosocial, multicomponent model to caring behavior and its derivative “compassion” that underpins newer approaches to psychotherapy. The paper explores the origins of caring (...) motives and the nature and biopsychosocial functions of caring-attachment behavior. These include providing a secure base and safe haven for offspring along with physiological regulating functions, which are also central for compassion focused therapy. Second, it suggests that it is the way recent human cognitive competencies give rise to different types of “mind awareness” and “knowing intentionality” that transform basic caring motives into potentials for compassion. While we can care for our gardens and treasured objects, the concept of compassion is only used for sentient beings who can “suffer.” As psychotherapy addresses mental suffering, cultivating the motives and competencies of compassion to self and others can be a central focus for psychotherapy. (shrink)

The world as we perceive it is structured into objects, actions and places that form parts of events. In this article, my aim is to explain why these categories are cognitively primary. From an empiricist and evolutionary standpoint, it is argued that the reduction of the complexity of sensory signals is based on the brain's capacity to identify various types of invariances that are evolutionarily relevant for the activities of the organism. The first aim of the article is to explain (...) why places, object and actions are primary cognitive categories in our constructions of the external world. It is shown that the invariances that determine these categories have their separate characteristics and that they are, by and large, independent of each other. This separation is supported by what is known about the neural mechanisms. The second aim is to show that the category of events can be analyzed as being constituted of the primary categories. The category of numbers is briefly discussed. Some implications for computational models of the categories are also presented. (shrink)

The notion of a physiological individuals has been developed and applied in the phi- losophy of biology to understand symbiosis, an understanding of which is key to theorising about the major transition in evolution from multi-organismality to multi- cellularity. The paper begins by asking what such symbiotic individuals can help to reveal about a possible transition in the evolution of cognition. Such a transition marks the movement from cooperating individual biological cognizers to a function- ally integrated cognizing unit. Somewhere along (...) the way, did such cognizing units simultaneously have cognizers as parts? Expanding upon the multiscale integration view of the Free Energy Principle, this paper develops an account of reciprocal inte- gration, demonstrating how some coupled biological cognizing systems, when certain constraints are met, can result in a cognizing unit that is in ways greater than the sum of its cognizing parts. Symbiosis between V. Fischeri bacteria and the bobtail squid is used to provide an illustration this account. A novel manner of conceptual- izing biological cognizers as gradient is then suggested. Lastly it is argued that the reason why the notion of ontologically nested cognizers may be unintuitive stems from the fact that our folk-psychology notion of what a cognizer is has been deeply influenced by our folk-biological manner of understanding biological individuals as units of reproduction. (shrink)

Since the emergence of our species at least, natural selection based on genetic variation has been replaced by culture as the major driving force in human evolution. It has made us what we are today, by ratcheting up cultural innovations, promoting new cognitive skills, rewiring brain networks, and even shifting gene distributions. Adopting an evolutionary perspective can therefore be highly informative for cognitive science in several ways: It encourages us to ask grand questions about the origins and ramifications of our (...) cognitive abilities; it equips us with the means to investigate, explain, and understand key dimensions of cognition; and it allows us to recognize the continued and ubiquitous workings of culture and evolution in everyday instances of cognitive behavior. Taking advantage of this reorientation presupposes a shift in focus, though, from human cognition as a general, homogenous phenomenon to the appreciation of cultural diversity in cognition as an invaluable source of data. (shrink)

Animistic cognition has adaptive value in domains of social and physical niche prediction. This argument is extended to our contemporary relationship with digital and AI technology.

This essay introduces a special issue focused on 4E cognition (cognition as embodied, embedded, enactive, and extended) in the Lower Palaeolithic. In it, we review the typological and representational cognitive approaches that have dominated the past fifty years of paleoanthropology. These have assumed that all representations and computations take place only inside the head, which implies that the archaeological record can only be an “external” product or the behavioral trace of “internal” representational and computational processes. In comparison, the 4E approach (...) helps us to overcome this dualist representational logic, allowing us to engage directly with the archaeological record as an integral part of the thinking process, and thus ground a more parsimonious cognitive archaeology. It also treats stone tools, the primary vestiges of hominin thinking, as active participants in mental life. The 4E approach offers a better grounding for understanding hominin technical expertise, a crucially important component of hominin cognitive evolution. (shrink)

This paper argues that self-consciousness and associated psychic consciousness emerges as a consequence of a recursive selfdirecting on itself of the cognitive centre in the human brain. The neural mechanisms and circuits underlying self-consciousness appeared and developed during biological evolution as an adaptation that increased the fitness of our social ancestors, chances of their survival, and reproduction. These mechanisms/circuits strengthened the efficiency of individuals in various social relations, enabled separation of 'I' from 'he/she' or 'them' and the formation of firstand (...) higher-order theory of mind, stimulated development of complex, recursive language, facilitated forming temporary coalitions directed to achieve a particular goal, helped to establish social hierarchies, and increased coherence and cooperativity of a social group. The reciprocal reinforcement of the development of the neural network in the brain underlying self-consciousness and of the network of various social relations and aspects was a self-driving process, one of positive feedbacks abundant in anthropogenesis. (shrink)

Recent work has established a framework for explaining the origin of cognitive novelties—qualitatively distinct cognitive traits—in human beings. This niche construction approach argues that humans engineer epistemic environments in ways that facilitate the ontogenetic and phylogenetic development of such novelties. I here argue that attention to the organized relations between content-carrying informational vehicles, or informational form, is key to a valuable explanatory strategy within this project, what I call structural-causal explanations. Drawing on recent work from Cecilia Heyes, and developing a (...) case study around a novel mathematical capacity, I demonstrate how structural-causal explanations can contribute to the niche construction approach by underwriting the application of explanatory tools and generating new empirical targets. (shrink)

he burgeoning science of ethics has produced a trend toward pessimism. Ordinary moral thought and action, we're told, are profoundly influenced by arbitrary factors and ultimately driven by unreasoned feelings. This book counters the current orthodoxy on its own terms by carefully engaging with the empirical literature. The resulting view, optimistic rationalism, shows the pervasive role played by reason our moral minds, and ultimately defuses sweeping debunking arguments in ethics. The science does suggest that moral knowledge and virtue don't come (...) easily. However, despite the heavy influence of automatic and unconscious processes that have been shaped by evolutionary pressures, we needn't reject ordinary moral psychology as fundamentally flawed or in need of serious repair. Reason can be corrupted in ethics just as in other domains, but a special pessimism about morality in particular is unwarranted. Moral judgment and motivation are fundamentally rational enterprises not beholden to the passions. (shrink)

Action-based theories of cognition place primary emphasis upon the role that agent-environment coupling plays in the emergence of psychological states. Prima facie, mental imagery seems to present a problem for some of these theories because it is understood to be stimulus-absent and thus thought to be decoupled from the environment. However, mental imagery is much more multifaceted than this “naïve” view suggests. Focusing on a particular kind of imagery, comparative mental imagery generation, this paper demonstrates that although such imagery is (...) stimulus-absent, it is also stimulus-sensitive. Exhibiting stimulus-sensitivity is sufficient for a process to qualify as coupled to the environment. The notion of variant coupling is explicated as the coupling of a cognizer’s perceptual system to variant environmental information. By demarcating the categories of stimulus-absent and stimulus-sensitive cognition, and variant and invariant coupling, this paper expands the conceptual apparatus of action-based theories, suggesting not only a way to address the problem that comparative mental imagery generation presents, but perhaps a way to account for other forms of imagery too. (shrink)

This paper examines the inferential framework employed by Palaeolithic cognitive archaeologists, using the work of Wynn and Coolidge as a case study. I begin by distinguishing minimal-capacity inferences from cognitive-transition inferences. Minimal-capacity inferences attempt to infer the cognitive prerequisites required for the production of a technology. Cognitive-transition inferences use transitions in technological complexity to infer transitions in cognitive evolution. I argue that cognitive archaeology has typically used cognitive-transition inferences informed by minimal-capacity inferences, and that this reflects a tendency to favour (...) cognitive explanations for transitions in technological complexity. Next I look at two alternative explanations for transitions in technological complexity: the demographic hypothesis and the environmental hypothesis. This presents us with a dilemma: either reject these alternative explanations or reject traditional cognitive-transition inferences. Rejecting the former is unappealing as there is strong evidence that demographic and environmental influences play some causal role in technological transitions. Rejecting the latter is unappealing as it means abandoning the idea that technological transitions tell us anything about transitions in hominin cognitive evolution. I finish by briefly outlining some conceptual tools from the philosophical literature that might help shed some light on the problem. (shrink)

We suggest an approach to studying consciousness that focuses on its evolutionary origins. The proposed framework is inspired by the study of the transition from inanimate matter to life, which proved extremely useful for understanding what 'life' entails. We follow the theoretical and methodological scheme put forward by Tibor Ganti, who suggested a marker for the transition to life -- an evolved feature that is sufficient for ascribing dynamic persistence to a minimal living system and that can serve as a (...) point of departure for reconstructing it. We apply this approach to consciousness and suggest an overt behavioural trait -- unlimited associative learning -- as a candidate transition marker. We show that the enabling system of UAL instantiates the set of properties that are considered jointly sufficient for minimal consciousness, and discuss the experimental predictions and the implications of our approach for the taxonomic distribution of consciousness in the animal world. (shrink)

The evolution of human cognitive abilities, despite intensive sociological, psychoanalytic and neurobiological investigations, is poorly understood. The basic events of this evolution: progressive language development, technologization, increased learning aptitude, remain a field of speculations without coherent and consistent explanations. In the recent manuscript, a production of artefacts as a general pre-condition of human being is highlighted, and a key role they played by reshaping of neuro-physiological functions is factually substantiated.

In recent years, a proliferation of books about empathy, cooperation and pro-social behaviours has significantly influenced the discourse of the life-sciences and reversed consolidated views of nature as a place only for competition and aggression. In this article I describe the recent contribution of three disciplines – moral psychology, primatology and the neuroscience of morality – to the present transformation of biology and evolution into direct sources of moral phenomena, a process here named the ‘moralization of biology’. I conclude by (...) addressing the ambivalent status of this constellation of authors, for whom today ‘morality comes naturally’: I explore both the attractiveness of their message, and the problematic epistemological assumptions of their research programmes in the light of new discoveries in developmental and molecular biology. (shrink)

What are the epistemological implications of the cognitive science of religion (CSR)? The lion’s share of discussion fixates on whether CSR undermines (or debunks or explains away) theistic belief. But could the field offer positive support for theism? If so, how? That is our question. Our answer takes the form of an evidential argument for theism from standard models and research in the field. According to CSR, we are naturally disposed to believe in supernatural agents and these beliefs are constrained (...) in certain ways. The three main theories of this supernatural disposition are byproduct theories, adaptationist theories, and hybrid theories. We argue that our supernatural disposition—as understood by any of the main theories—is more surprising and improbable given naturalism than theism and thus serves as evidence for theism over naturalism. (shrink)

The social trackways theory is centered on the remarkable 3.66 mya Laetoli Fossilized Trackways, for they incontrovertibly reveal our ancestors were already obligate bipeds with very human-like feet, and were intentionally stepping in other band members’ footprints to maintain safe footing. Trackways are unique among natural sign systems in possessing a depictive narratively generative structure, somewhat like the symbolic sign systems of gestural languages. Therefore, due to daily embodied reiteration of their own and other band member’s old footprints, both for (...) bipedal safety and as recognizable wayfinding markers for socio-ecological navigation, incrementally our Mid-Pliocene ancestors began to acquire a cognitive capacity for episodic personal memories and episodic future simulations. They began mentally representing themselves as intentional agents continuously travelling from the past into the future. This spatially and temporally self-projecting awareness manifested itself as extra theory of mind and mental space-and-time-travel capacities, which increasingly enabled intentional or conscious, top-down executive adjustment of past behaviors for the sake of achieving better ways of doing things in the future. Future-directed behavioral and cultural adaptations began to increase fitness in all domains, thus creating powerful selective feedback for further entrenchment. Here we focus on overtly or consciously intentional exploratory wayfinding and transmission of elsewhere-and-when information, using pragmatic, discursive modes of communication, which enabled far more cooperative and efficient foraging practices. Selection for better communication thus led to intentional trail marking and the earliest emergence of more conventional/symbolic depictive and gestural “protolanguages.”. (shrink)

Today, music is ubiquitous, highly valued in all known cultures, playing many roles in human daily life. The ethnographic study of the music of extant human foragers makes this quite apparent. Moreover, music is ancient. Sophisticated bird-bone and ivory flutes dated from 40 kya reveal an even earlier musical-technological tradition. So is music likely to be an entrenched feature of human social life during the long passage to behavioral modernity—say, by 150 kya—or earlier? In this article I sketch an evolutionary (...) model that focuses on hominin vocal musicality and communication in the Pleistocene, tracking between series of phenotypes and changes in ecological, social, cognitive, and informational contexts. The model links musicality and protomusic to a bigger picture of hominin socio-cognitive evolution, making some connections clearer, motivating further theorizing and the search for new evidence. (shrink)

In this book review essay, Timothy Justus discusses The Birth of the Mind: How a Tiny Number of Genes Creates the Complexities of Human Thought (2004) by Gary Marcus. The review opens by contrasting the common architectural-blueprint metaphor for the genome with an alternative: the if-then statements of a computer program. The former leads to a seeming “gene shortage” problem while the latter are better suited to representing the cascades of genetic expression that give rise to exponential genotype-phenotype relationships. The (...) essay then develops three conceptual issues of interest to cognitive scientists in light of this small, data-compressed genome: (1) distinguishing dissociations in the developmental process from the domain-specificity of the resulting mental representations, (2) the observation that no gene is specific to a mental representation, a cortical region, or even the nervous system, and (3) the complications that a small number of genes present to the adaptationist programme in evolutionary psychology. The review concludes by questioning the utility of the Swiss Army knife as a metaphor for cognitive development and evolution. (shrink)

The evolutionary argument is one of the most well-known empirical arguments against epiphenomenalism. In its most persuasive form, it aims to show that because of evolutionary considerations, the smooth correlations between painful qualia and noxious stimuli would be highly unexpected if epiphenomenalism were true, but just what we would expect if an alternative mind--body theory were. Thus, the presence of these correlations is strong evidence against epiphenomenalism. After formulating a canonical version of the argument, I demonstrate that the evolutionary evidence (...) adduced as part of it is superfluous, and could easily be jettisoned without damaging whatever force the argument has. I then proceed to show an even stronger result -- that the evolutionary evidence is actually nothing more than a distraction from the elements of the argument that actually give it its dialectical strength. (shrink)

The storytelling monkey why do we see faces in clouds? -- The creative serpent where did science come from? -- The pitiful monster why do doctors wear white coats? -- The logical alien why are we so unreasonable? -- The clever horse -- The science graveyard why do we hold onto bad ideas? -- The tangled web who is in control of what we know? -- The progressive human what will intelligence mean in the future?

Bipedalism in the earliest hominid specimens is always accompanied by the reduction of projecting canine teeth. Body size is smaller than chimpanzees or humans, but molar teeth are markedly larger. Use of a pointed stick for defensive purposes on the one hand, and digging for USOs on the other, may be why bipedalism was selected for. Passing such learned behavior to the next generation may have played a role in selecting for language.

Quite unexpectedly, cognitive psychologists find their field intimately connected to a whole new intellectual landscape that had previously seemed remote, unfamiliar, and all but irrelevant. Yet the proliferating connections tying together the cognitive and evolutionary communities promise to transform both fields, with each supplying necessary principles, methods, and a species of rigor that the other lacks. (Cosmides and Tooby, 1994, p. 85).

Individualists claim that wide explanations in psychology are problematic. I argue that wide psychological explanations sometimes have greater explanatory power than individualistic explanations. The aspects of explanatory power I focus on are causal depth and theoretical appropriateness. Reflection on the depth and appropriateness of other wide explanations of behavior, such as evolutionary explanations, clarifies why wide psychological explanations sometimes have more causal depth and theoretical appropriateness than narrow psychological explanations. I also argue for the rejection of eliminative materialism.

In recent years, quite a few evolutionary psychologists have come to embrace a heuristic interpretation of the discipline. They claim that, no matter how methodologically incomplete, adaptive thinking works fine as a good heuristic that effectively reduces the hypothesis space by generating novel and promising hypotheses that can eventually be empirically tested. The purpose of this article is to elucidate the use of heuristics in evolutionary psychology, thereby clarifying the role adaptive thinking has to play. To that end, two typical (...) heuristic interpretations—Machery’s "bootstrap strategy" and Goldfinch’s heuristically streamlined evolutionary psychology—are examined, focusing on the relationship between adaptive thinking and heuristics. The article draws two primary conclusions. The first is that the reliability of the heuristic hypothesis generation procedure should count no less than the conclusiveness of the final testing procedure in establishing scientific facts; nature does not always get the last word. Philosophy also counts. The second is that adaptive thinking constitutes a core heuristic in evolutionary psychology that provides the discipline with its raison d'être, but this is only possible when adaptive thinking is substantiated with sufficient historical underpinnings. (shrink)

In this article, I argue that evolutionary psychological strategies for making inferences about present-day human psychology are methodologically unsound. Evolutionary psychology is committed to the view that the mind has an architecture that has been conserved since the Pleistocene, and that our psychology can be fruitfully understood in terms of the original, fitness-enhancing functions of these conserved psychological mechanisms. But for evolutionary psychological explanations to succeed, practitioners must be able to show that contemporary cognitive mechanisms correspond to those that were (...) selected for in the environment of evolutionary adaptedness, that these present-day cognitive mechanisms are descended from the corresponding ancestral mechanisms, and that they have retained the functions of the ancestral mechanisms from which they are descended. I refer to the problem of demonstrating that these conditions obtain as “the matching problem,” argue that evolutionary psychology does not have the resources to address it, and conclude that evolutionary psychology, as it is currently understood, is therefore impossible. (shrink)

Evolutionary psychology often does not sufficiently document the innate constraint and domain specificity required for strong adaptationist argument. We develop these criteria within the domain of music. First, we advocate combining computational, developmental, cross-cultural, and neuroscience research to address the ways in which a domain is innately constrained. Candidate constraints in music include the importance of the octave and other simple pitch ratios, the categorization of the octave into tones, the importance of melodic contour, tonal hierarchies, and principles of grouping (...) and meter. Second, we advocate combining psychological, neuroscience, and genetic research across cognitive domains to address the domain specificity of such constraints. Currently available evidence suggests that the innate constraints in music are not specific to that domain, making it unclear which domain(s) provided the relevant selection pressures. (shrink)

A conception of the idiotic mind was used to substantiate late 19th-century theories of mental evolution. A new school of animal/comparative psychologists attempted from the 1870s to demonstrate that evolution was a mental as well as a physical process. This intellectual enterprise necessitated the closure, or narrowing, of the ‘consciousness gap’ between human and animal species. A concept of a quasi-non-conscious human mind, set against conscious intention and ability in higher animals, provided an explanatory framework for the human–animal continuum and (...) the evolution of consciousness. The article addresses a significant lacuna in the historiographies of intellectual disability, animal science, and evolutionary psychology, where the application of a conception of human idiocy to advance theories of consciousness evolution has not hitherto been explored. These ideas retain contemporary resonance in ethology and cognitive psychology, and in the theory of ‘speciesism’, outlined by Peter Singer in Animal Liberation, which claims that equal consideration of interests is not arbitrarily restricted to members of the human species, and advocates euthanasia of intellectually disabled human infants. Speciesism remains at the core of animal rights activism today. The article also explores the influence of the idea of the semi-evolved idiot mind in late-Victorian anthropology and neuroscience. These ideas operated in a separate intellectual sphere to eugenic thought. They were deeply influential, and were at the heart of the idea of the moral idiot or imbecile, targeted in the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act, as well as in 20th-century animal and human consciousness theory. (shrink)

How do technologies that are too complex for any one individual to produce arise and persist in human populations? Contra prevailing views focusing on social learning, Osiurak and Reynaud argue that the primary driver for cumulative technological culture is our ability for technical reasoning. Whilst sympathetic to their overall position, we argue that two specific aspects of their account are implausible: first, that technical reasoning is unique to humans; and second, that technical reasoning is a necessary condition for the production (...) of cumulative technological culture. We then present our own view, which keeps technical reasoning at the forefront but jettisons these conditions. This produces an account of cumulative technological culture that maintains an important role for technical reasoning, whilst being more evolutionarily plausible. (shrink)

According to Westermarck’s widely accepted explanation of the incest taboo, cultural prohibitions on sibling sex are rooted in an evolved biological disposition to feel sexual aversion toward our childhood coresidents. Bernard Williams posed the “representation problem” for Westermarck’s theory: the content of the hypothesized instinct is different from the content of the incest taboo —thus the former cannot be causally responsible for the latter. Arthur Wolf posed the related “moralization problem”: the instinct concerns personal behavior whereas the prohibition concerns everyone. (...) This paper reviews possible ways of defending Westermarck’s theory from the representation and moralization problems, and concludes that the theory is untenable. A recent study purports to support Westermarck’s account by showing that unrelated children raised in the same peer groups on kibbutzim feel sexual aversion toward each other and morally oppose third-party intra-peer-group sex, but this study has been misinterpreted. I argue that the representation and moralization problems are general problems that could potentially undermine many popular evolutionary explanations of social/moral norms. The cultural evolution of morality is not tightly constrained by our biological endowment in the way some philosophers and evolutionary psychologists believe. (shrink)

Anche se questo volume è un po 'datato, ci sono pochi libri popolari recenti che si occupano specificamente della psicologia dell'omicidio ed è una rapida panoramica disponibile per pochi dollari, quindi ne vale comunque la pena. Non fa alcun tentativo di essere completo ed è un po ' superficiale in alcuni punti, con il lettore che si aspetta di riempire gli spazi vuoti dai suoi molti altri libri e la vasta letteratura sulla violenza. Per un aggiornamento vedere ad esempio, Buss, (...) Il Manuale di Psicologia Evolutiva 2nd ed. V1 (2016) p 265, 266, 270–282, 388–389, 545–546, 547, 566 e Buss, Psicologia Evolutiva 5th ed. (2015) p. 26, 96-97.223, 293-4, 300, 309-312, 410 e Shackelford e Hansen, L'evoluzione della violenza (2014).. È stato tra i migliori psicologi evoluzionisti per diversi decenni e copre una vasta gamma di comportamenti nelle sue opere, ma qui si concentra quasi interamente sui meccanismi psicologici che causano l'omicidio delle singole persone e la loro possibile funzione evolutiva nel SEE (Ambiente dell'adattamento evolutivo, cioè le pianure dell'Africa durante gli ultimi milioni di anni o giù di lì). Gli Buss iniziano notando che, come per altri comportamenti, spiegazioni "alternative" come la psicopatologia, la gelosia, l'ambiente sociale, le pressioni di gruppo, le droghe e l'alcol ecc. non spiegano realmente, poiché rimane la questione del motivo per cui questi producono impulsi omicidi, cioè sono le cause prossipate e non quelle evolutive finali (genetiche). Come sempre, inevitabilmente si riduce alla forma fisica inclusiva (selezione dei parenti), e così alla lotta per l'accesso agli accoppiamenti e alle risorse, che è la spiegazione finale per tutti i comportamenti in tutti gli organismi. I dati sociologici (e il buon senso) chiariscono che i maschi più giovani sono i più propensi ad uccidere. Presenta i suoi e altri dati omicidi provenienti da nazioni industrializzate, e culture tribali, uccisioni aspecifiche conspecifiche in animali, archeologia, dati dell'FBI e la propria ricerca sulle fantasie omicidi delle persone normali. Molte prove archeologiche continuano ad accumularsi di omicidi, tra cui quello di interi gruppi, o di gruppi meno giovani femmine, in epoca preistorica. Dopo aver esaminato i commenti di Buss, presento una brevissima sintesi della psicologia intenzionale (la struttura logica della razionalità), che è ampiamente trattata nei miei molti altri articoli e libri. Coloro che hanno un sacco di tempo che vogliono una storia dettagliata della violenza omicida da una prospettiva evolutiva possono consultare 'The Better Angels of Our Nature Why Violence Has Declined' di Steven Pinker e la mia recensione, facilmente disponibile in rete e in due dei miei ultimi libri. In breve, Pinker osserva che l'omicidio è diminuito costantemente e drammaticamente di un fattore di circa 30 dai nostri giorni come raccoglitori. Quindi, anche se le armi ora rendono estremamente facile per chiunque uccidere, la omicidio è molto meno comune. Pinker pensa che ciò sia dovuto a vari meccanismi sociali che mettono in evidenza i nostri "angeli migliori", ma penso che sia dovuto principalmente all'abbondanza temporanea di risorse dallo stupro spietato del nostro pianeta, insieme a una maggiore presenza della polizia, con la comunicazione e la sorveglianza e i sistemi legali che rendono molto più probabile essere puniti. Questo diventa chiaro ogni volta che c'è anche una breve e locale assenza della polizia. Coloro che desiderano un quadro aggiornato completo per il comportamento umano dalla moderna vista a due systems possono consultare il mio libro 'La struttura logica dellafilosofia, psicologia, Mind e il linguaggio in Ludwig Wittgenstein e John Searle' 2nd ed (2019). Coloro che sono interessati a più dei miei scritti possono vedere 'Talking Monkeys--Filosofia, Psicologia, Scienza, Religione e Politica su un Pianeta Condannato--Articoli e Recensioni 2006-2019 3rd ed (2019) e Suicidal Utopian Delusions in the 21st Century 5th ed (2019). (shrink)

Dal momento che Gintis è un economista senior e ho letto alcuni dei suoi precedenti libri con interesse, mi aspettavo qualche più intuizione sul comportamento. Purtroppo, fa le mani morte della selezione di gruppo e della fenomenologia nei pezzi centrali delle sue teorie del comportamento, e questo invalida in gran parte l'opera. Peggio ancora, dal momento che mostra un tale cattivo giudizio qui, mette in discussione tutto il suo lavoro precedente. Il tentativo di resuscitare la selezione di gruppo da parte (...) dei suoi amici ad Harvard, Nowak e Wilson, alcuni anni fa è stato uno dei maggiori scandali della biologia nell'ultimo decennio, e ho raccontato la triste storia nel mio articolo 'Altruismo, Gesù e la fine del mondo: come la Templeton Foundation ha acquistato una cattedra di Harvard e ha attaccato Evolution, Rationality and Civilization - Una recensione di E.O. Wilson 'The Social Conquest of Earth' (2012) e Nowak and Highfield 'SuperCooperators'). A differenza di Nowak, Gintis non sembra essere motivato dal fanatismo religioso, ma dal forte desiderio di generare un'alternativa alle cupe realtà della natura umana, reso facile dalla mancanza (quasi universale) della comprensione della biologia umana di base e dello slateismo in bianco degli scienziati comportamentali, di altri accademici e del pubblico in generale. Gintis attacca giustamente (come ha fatto molte volte prima) economisti, sociologi e altri scienziati comportamentali per non avere un quadro coerente per descrivere il comportamento. Naturalmente, il quadro necessario per comprendere il comportamento è evolutivo. Purtroppo, non riesce a fornire uno se stesso (secondo i suoi molti critici e io concordo), e il tentativo di innestare il cadavere marcio di selezione di gruppo su qualsiasi teoria economica e psicologica che ha generato nei suoi decenni di lavoro, invalida semplicemente il suo intero progetto. Anche se Gintis fa uno sforzo coraggioso per capire e spiegare la genetica, come Wilson e Nowak, è lontano da un esperto, e come loro, la matematica lo acceca alle impossibilità biologiche e, naturalmente, questa è la norma nella scienza. Come Wittgenstein notoriamente ha notato sulla prima pagina di Cultura e Valore "Non esiste una denominazione religiosa in cui l'uso improprio delle espressioni metafisiche è stato responsabile di tanto peccato come ha fatto in matematica." È sempre stato chiaro che un gene che provoca un comportamento che diminuisce la propria frequenza non può persistere, ma questo è il nucleo della nozione di selezione del gruppo. Inoltre, è stato ben noto e spesso dimostrato che la selezione di gruppo riduce solo alla forma fisica inclusiva (selezione dei parenti), che, come ha notato Dawkins, è solo un altro nome per l'evoluzione per selezione naturale. Come Wilson, Gintis ha lavorato in questa arena per circa 50 anni e ancora non l'ha afferrato, ma dopo lo scandalo è rotto, mi ci sono voluti solo 3 giorni per trovare, leggere e capire il lavoro professionale più rilevante, come descritto nel mio articolo. È da capo giro rendersi conto che Gintis e Wilson non sono stati in grado di raggiungere questo obiettivo in quasi mezzo secolo. Discuto gli errori di selezione di gruppo e fenomenologia che sono la norma nel mondo accademico come casi speciali della quasi universale incapacità di comprendere la natura umana che stanno distruggendo l'America e il mondo. Coloro che desiderano un quadro aggiornato completo per il comportamento umano dalla moderna vista a due systems possono consultare il mio libro 'La struttura logica dellafilosofia, psicologia, Mind e il linguaggio in Ludwig Wittgenstein e John Searle' 2nd ed (2019). Coloro che sono interessati a più dei miei scritti possono vedere 'TalkingMonkeys--Filosofia, Psicologia, Scienza, Religione e Politica su un Pianeta Condannato--Articoli e Recensioni 2006-2019 3rd ed (2019) e Suicidal Utopian Delusions nel 21st Century 4th ed (2019) . (shrink)

Che ne dite di una diversa ripercorrere i ricchi e i famosi? Prima l'ovvio: i romanzi di Harry Potter sono una superstizione primitiva che incoraggia i bambini a credere nella fantasia piuttosto che assumersi la responsabilità per il mondo, ovviamente. JKR è altrettanto all'oscuro di se stessa e del mondo come la maggior partedelle persone , macirca 200 volte più distruttivo come l'americano medio e circa 800 volte più di cinese medio. È stata responsabile della distruzione di forse 30.000 ettari (...) di foresta per produrre questi romanzi spazzatura e tutta l'erosione che ne deriva (non banale come'è almeno 6 e forse 12 tonnellate / anno suolo nell'oceano per tutti sulla terra o forse 100 tonnellate per americano, e così circa 5000 tonnellate / anno per i libri e mov ies Rowlinge isuoi 3 bambini). La terra perde almeno l'1% del suo suolo superiore ogni anno, così come si avvicina a 2100, la maggior parte della sua capacità di coltivazione alimentare sarà andato. Poi c'è l'enorme quantità di carburante bruciato e rifiuti fatti per fare e distribuire i libri e film, bambole di plastica, ecc. Dimostra la sua mancanza di responsabilità sociale producendo figli piuttosto che usare i suoi milioni per incoraggiare la pianificazione familiare o acquistare la foresta pluviale, e promuovendo la tradizionale stupidità liberale della terza supremazia mondiale che sta distruggendo la Gran Bretagna, l'America, il mondo e il futuro del suo discendente. Certo, non è poi così diversa dalle altre 7. 8 miliardi all'oscuro - solo più rumoroso e più distruttivo. È il problema nessun pranzo gratuito scritto grande. La folla proprio non può vedere che non esiste una cosa come aiutare una persona senza danneggiare gli altri. I diritti o i privilegi concessi ai nuovi operatori in un mondo sovraffollato non possono chedim inish quelli degli altri. Nonostante i massicci disastri ecologici che accadono di fronte a loro ovunque ogni giorno, non possono fissarli alla maternità sfrenata del "diverso", che rappresenta la maggior parte dell'aumento della popolazione del secolo scorso e tutto questo in questo. Non hanno una combinazione di intelligenza, istruzione, esperienza e sanità mentale necessarie per estrapolare gli assalti quotidiani alle risorse e al funzionamento della società fino all'eventuale collasso della civiltà industriale. Ogni pasto, ogni viaggio in auto o in autobus, ogni paio di scarpe è un altro chiodo nella bara della terra. Probabilmente non ha mai attraversato la sua mente che un sedile su un aereo da Londra a San Francisco produce circa una tonnellata di carbonio che si scioglie circa 3 metri quadrati di ghiaccio marino e come una delle overprivileged che ha probabilmente volato centinaia di tali voli. Non solo i ricchi e famosi, ma quasi tutti i personaggi pubblici, compresi praticamente tutti gli insegnanti, sono spinti ad essere politicamente corretti, che nelle democrazie occidentali, ora significa socialdemocratico(neomarxista, cioè comunisti diluiti) terzo suprematisti del mondo che lavorano per la distruzione delle loro società e dei loro discendenti. Così, coloro la cui mancanzadiistruzione, esperienza, intelligenza (e buon senso di base), che dovrebbe proibire loro di fare qualsiasi dichiarazione pubblica a tutti, dominano totalmente tutti i media, creando l'impressione che l'intelligente e civile deve favorire la democrazia, la diversità e l'uguaglianza, mentre la verità è che questi sono i problemi e non le soluzioni, e che essi stessi sono i primi nemici della civiltà. Vedere il mio suicidio per democrazia 2nd ed (2019). (shrink)

Questa è un'eccellente revisione delle interazioni gene/ambiente sul comportamento e, nonostante sia un po' datata, è una lettura facile e utile. Iniziano con studi gemelli che mostrano l'impatto travolgente della genetica sul comportamento. Notano gli studi sempre più noti di Judith Harris che estendono e riassumono i fatti che l'ambiente domestico condiviso non ha quasi alcun effetto sul comportamento e che i bambini adottati crescono fino ad essere diversi dai loro fratellastri e sorelle come le persone scelte a caso. Un (...) punto fondamentale che loro (e quasi tutti coloro che discutono di genetica comportamentale) non riescono a notare è che le centinaia (migliaia a seconda del tuo punto di vista) degli universali comportamentali umani, comprese tutte le basi delle nostre personalità, sono determinate al 100% dai nostri geni, senza variazioni nella normalità. Tutti vedono un albero come un albero e non come una pietra, cercano e mangiano cibo, si arrabbiano e geloso ecc. Quindi, quello di cui stanno parlando per lo più qui è quanto ambiente (cultura) può influenzare il grado in cui vengono mostrati i vari tratti, piuttosto che il loro aspetto. Infine, discutono di eugenetica nel solito modo politicamente corretto, non riuscendo a notare che noi e tutti gli organismi siamo i prodotti dell'eugenetica della natura e che i tentativi di sconfiggere la selezione naturale con la medicina, l'agricoltura e la civiltà nel suo complesso sono disastrosi per qualsiasi società che persiste nel farlo. Fino al 50% di tutte le concezioni, o circa 100 milioni/anno, finiscono in un aborto spontaneo precoce, quasi tutti senza che la madre ne sia a conoscenza. Questo abbattimento naturale dei geni difettosi guida l'evoluzione, ci mantiene relativamente geneticamente sani e rende possibile la società. La disgenica è sufficiente a distruggere la civiltà, ma la sovrappopolazione sarà doprima. Coloro che desiderano un quadro aggiornato completo per il comportamento umano dalla moderna vista a due systems possono consultare il mio libro 'La struttura logica dellafilosofia, psicologia, Mind e il linguaggio in Ludwig Wittgenstein e John Searle' 2nd ed (2019). Coloro che sono interessati a più dei miei scritti possono vedere 'TalkingMonkeys--Filosofia, Psicologia, Scienza, Religione e Politica su un Pianeta Condannato--Articoli e Recensioni 2006-2017' 3rd ed (2019). (shrink)

हालांकि इस मात्रा में थोड़ा दिनांकित है, वहाँ कुछ हाल ही में लोकप्रिय हत्या के मनोविज्ञान के साथ विशेष रूप से काम कर रहे हैं और यह एक त्वरित कुछ डॉलर के लिए उपलब्ध सिंहावलोकन है, तो अभी भी अच्छी तरह से प्रयास के लायक. यह व्यापक होने का कोई प्रयास नहीं करता है और स्थानों में कुछ सतही है, पाठक के साथ अपने कई अन्य पुस्तकों और हिंसा पर विशाल साहित्य से रिक्त स्थान में भरने की उम्मीद है. एक (...) अद्यतन के लिए उदाहरण के लिए, Buss, विकासवादी मनोविज्ञान 2 एड की हैंडबुक देखें. V1 (2016) p 265, 266, 270-282, 388-389, 545-546, 547, 566 और Buss, विकासवादी मनोविज्ञान 5 th ed. (2015) p 26, 96-97,223, 293-4, 300, 309 312, और Hansen1, और Hansen , हिंसा का विकास (2014)|वह कई दशकों के लिए शीर्ष विकासवादी मनोवैज्ञानिकों के बीच किया गया है और अपने काम में व्यवहार की एक विस्तृत श्रृंखला को शामिल किया गया है, लेकिन यहाँ वह मनोवैज्ञानिक तंत्र है कि व्यक्तिगत लोगों की हत्या और उनके संभव कारण पर लगभग पूरी तरह से ध्यान केंद्रित EEA में विकासवादी समारोह (विकासवादी अनुकूलन के पर्यावरण यानी, अफ्रीका के मैदानों पिछले दस लाख वर्षों के दौरान या तो). Buss ध्यान देने योग्य है कि अन्य व्यवहार के साथ के रूप में शुरू होता है, 'वैकल्पिक' इस तरह के मनोविकृति विज्ञान, ईर्ष्या, सामाजिक पर्यावरण, समूह के दबाव, दवाओं और शराब आदि के रूप में स्पष्टीकरण वास्तव में व्याख्या नहीं है, के बाद से सवाल अभी भी क्यों इन उत्पादों के रूप में बनी हुई है घातक आवेगों, अर्थात्, वे निकट कारण हैं और नहीं परम विकासवादी (आनुवंशिक) वाले. हमेशा की तरह, यह अनिवार्य रूप से समावेशी फिटनेस के लिए नीचे फोड़े (किन चयन), और इसलिए साथी और संसाधनों, जो सभी जीवों में सभी व्यवहार के लिए अंतिम विवरण है के लिए उपयोग के लिए संघर्ष करने के लिए. सामाजिक डेटा (और सामान्य ज्ञान) यह स्पष्ट है कि युवा गरीब पुरुषों को मारने के लिए सबसे अधिक संभावना है. वह औद्योगिक देशों से अपने और दूसरों की हत्या डेटा प्रस्तुत करता है, और आदिवासी संस्कृतियों, पशुओं में विशिष्ट हत्या, पुरातत्व, एफबीआई डेटा और सामान्य लोगों की आत्मघाती कल्पनाओं में अपने स्वयं के अनुसंधान. बहुत पुरातात्विक सबूत हत्या के जमा करने के लिए जारी है, पूरे समूहों की है कि सहित, या समूहों के शून्य युवा महिलाओं, प्रागैतिहासिक काल में. है Buss टिप्पणियों का सर्वेक्षण करने के बाद, मैं जानबूझकर मनोविज्ञान का एक बहुत संक्षिप्त सारांश पेश (तर्कसंगतता की तार्किक संरचना), जो बड़े पैमाने पर मेरे कई अन्य लेख और पुस्तकों में कवर किया जाता है. समय की एक बहुत कुछ है जो एक विकासवादी दृष्टिकोण से घातक हिंसा का एक विस्तृत इतिहास चाहते हैं के साथ उन स्टीवन पिंकर 'हमारी प्रकृति के बेहतर एन्जिल्स क्यों हिंसा अस्वीकार कर दिया है परामर्श कर सकते हैं'(2012), और इसके बारे में मेरी समीक्षा, नेट पर आसानी से उपलब्ध और मेरी हाल की पुस्तकों में से दो में. संक्षेप में, पिंकर नोट है कि हत्या के बारे में एक कारक द्वारा तेजी से और नाटकीय रूप से कमी आई है 30 foragers के रूप में हमारे दिनों के बाद से. तो, भले ही बंदूकें अब यह बहुत आसान किसी को मारने के लिए बनाने के लिए, हत्या बहुत कम आम है. पिंकर सोचता है कि यह विभिन्न सामाजिक तंत्र है कि हमारे 'बेहतर स्वर्गदूतों' बाहर लाने के कारण है, लेकिन मुझे लगता है कि यह मुख्य रूप से हमारे ग्रह की बेरहम बलात्कार से संसाधनों की अस्थायी बहुतायत के कारण है, वृद्धि हुई पुलिस की उपस्थिति के साथ युग्मित, संचार के साथ और निगरानी और कानूनी प्रणाली है कि यह कहीं अधिक सजा होने की संभावना है. यह हर बार स्पष्ट हो जाता है वहाँ भी एक संक्षिप्त और स्थानीय पुलिस की अनुपस्थिति है. आधुनिक दो systems दृश्यसे मानव व्यवहार के लिए एक व्यापक अप करने के लिए तारीख रूपरेखा इच्छुक लोगों को मेरी पुस्तक 'दर्शन, मनोविज्ञान, मिनडी और लुडविगमें भाषा की तार्किक संरचना से परामर्श कर सकते हैं Wittgenstein और जॉन Searle '2 एड (2019). मेरे लेखन के अधिक में रुचि रखने वालों को देख सकते हैं 'बात कर रहेबंदर- दर्शन, मनोविज्ञान, विज्ञान, धर्म और राजनीति पर एक बर्बाद ग्रह --लेख और समीक्षा 2006-2019 3 एड (2019) और आत्मघाती यूटोपियान भ्रम 21st मेंसदी 5वें एड (2019). (shrink)

प्रसिद्ध चींटी आदमी ई.ओ. विल्सन हमेशा मेरे नायकों में से एक रहा है - न केवल एक उत्कृष्ट जीवविज्ञानी, लेकिन बुद्धिजीवियों के छोटे और गायब अल्पसंख्यक जो कम से कम हमारी प्रकृति के बारे में सच्चाई पर संकेत करने की हिम्मत है कि दूसरों को समझने में विफल, या insofar के रूप में वेओ समझ , जोर से राजनीतिक expience के लिए बचने के लिए. अफसोस की बात है, वह एक पार्टी के रूप में सबसे कठोर फैशन में अपने लंबे (...) कैरियर को समाप्त कर रहा है विज्ञान पर एक अज्ञानी और अभिमानी हमले के लिए कम से कम अपने हार्वर्ड सहयोगियों केधार्मिक उत्साह से प्रेरित भाग में. यह नीच परिणाम से पता चलता है जब विश्वविद्यालयों धार्मिक समूहों से पैसे स्वीकार करते हैं, विज्ञान पत्रिकाओं तो बड़े नाम है कि वे उचित सहकर्मी की समीक्षा से बचने के द्वारा awed रहे हैं, और जब अहं को नियंत्रण से बाहर निकलने की अनुमति दी जाती है. यह हमें विकास की प्रकृति में ले जाता है, वैज्ञानिक पद्धति की मूल बातें, कैसे गणित विज्ञान से संबंधित है, क्या एक सिद्धांत का गठन किया है, और यहां तक कि धर्म और उदारता के दृष्टिकोण क्या उचित हैं के रूप में हम inexorably औद्योगिक के पतन दृष्टिकोण सभ्यता. आधुनिक दो systems दृश्यसे मानव व्यवहार के लिए एक व्यापक अप करने के लिए तारीख रूपरेखा इच्छुक लोगों को मेरी पुस्तक 'दर्शन, मनोविज्ञान, मिनडी और लुडविगमें भाषा की तार्किक संरचना से परामर्श कर सकते हैं Wittgenstein और जॉन Searle '2 एड (2019). मेरे लेखन के अधिक में रुचि रखने वालों को देख सकते हैं 'बात कर रहेबंदर- दर्शन, मनोविज्ञान, विज्ञान, धर्म और राजनीति पर एक बर्बाद ग्रह --लेख और समीक्षा 2006-2019 3 एड (2019) और आत्मघाती यूटोपियान भ्रम 21st मेंसदी 4वें एड (2019) . (shrink)

यह एक आदर्श पुस्तक नहीं है, लेकिन यह अद्वितीय है, और यदि आप पहले 400 या तो पृष्ठों स्किम, पिछले 300 (कुछ 700 के) एक बहुत अच्छा लागू करने के लिए क्या समय के साथ हिंसा और शिष्टाचार में सामाजिक परिवर्तन के व्यवहार के बारे में जाना जाता है प्रयास कर रहे हैं. मूल विषय है: कैसे हमारे आनुवंशिकी नियंत्रण और सामाजिक परिवर्तन की सीमा है? हैरानी की बात है कि वह रिश्तेदार चयन (समावेशी फिटनेस) जो पशु और मानव सामाजिक (...) जीवन के बहुत बताते हैं की प्रकृति का वर्णन करने में विफल रहता है. उन्होंने यह भी (लगभग हर किसी की तरह) तर्कसंगतता की तार्किक संरचना का वर्णन करने के लिए एक स्पष्ट रूपरेखा का अभाव है (LSR-जॉन Searle पसंदीदा शब्द) जो मैं उच्च आदेश सोचा (DPHOT) के वर्णनात्मक मनोविज्ञान फोन पसंद करते हैं. उन्हें लोगों और ग्रह को गाली देने और उनका शोषण करने के कई अन्य तरीकों के बारे में कुछ कहना चाहिए था, क्योंकि ये अब इतने अधिक गंभीर हैं कि हिंसा के अन्य रूपों को लगभग अप्रासंगिक बना दिया गया है। हिंसा की अवधारणा का विस्तार करने के लिएकिसी के जीन की प्रतिकृति के वैश्विक दीर्घकालिक परिणाम शामिल हैं, और कैसे विकास काम करता है की प्रकृति की समझहोने (यानी, रिश्तेदार चयन) इतिहास पर एक बहुत ही अलग परिप्रेक्ष्य प्रदान करेगा , वर्तमान घटनाओं, और कैसे चीजें अगले कुछ सौ वर्षों में जाने की संभावना है. एक ध्यान देने योग्य है कि इतिहास पर शारीरिक हिंसा में कमी मिलान किया गया है द्वारा शुरू हो सकता है (और संभव बनाया) ग्रह की लगातार बढ़ती बेरहम बलात्कार द्वारा (यानी, लोगोंके अपने वंशज के भविष्य के विनाशसे). पिंकर (ज्यादातर लोगों की तरह ज्यादातर समय) अक्सर संस्कृति के सतही से विचलित है जब यह जीव विज्ञान है कि मायने रखती है. विल्सन 'पृथ्वी के सामाजिक विजय' और Nowak और Highfield 'SuperCooperators' यहाँ और नेट पर 'सच परोपकारिता' (समूह चयन) की शून्यता का एक संक्षिप्त सारांश के लिए की मेरी हाल ही की समीक्षा देखें, और रिश्तेदार चयन के संचालन और uselessness और सांस्कृतिक संदर्भ में व्यवहार का वर्णन करने की सतही. यह क्लासिक प्रकृति/पोषण का मुद्दा है और प्रकृति का पोषण --अनंत रूप से। क्या वास्तव में मायने रखती है जनसंख्या और संसाधन विनाश में लगातार वृद्धि (चिकित्सा और प्रौद्योगिकी और पुलिस और सेना द्वारा संघर्ष दमन के कारण) द्वारा पृथ्वी के लिए किया हिंसा है. के बारे में 200,000 अधिक लोगों को एक दिन (एक और लास वेगास हर 10 दिन, एक और लॉस एंजिल्स हर महीने), 6 टन या तो topsoil के समुद्र में जा / कुछ चमत्कार होता है जैवमंडल और सभ्यता काफी हद तक अगली दो शताब्दियोंके दौरान पतन होगा, और वहाँ भुखमरी, दुख और एक चौंका देने वाला पैमाने पर हर तरह की हिंसा होगी. हिंसक कृत्यों को करने के लिए लोगों के व्यवहार, विचारों और प्रवृत्तियों की कोई प्रासंगिकता नहीं है जब तक कि वे इस तबाही से बचने के लिए कुछ नहीं कर सकते हैं, और मुझे नहीं लगता कि यह कैसे होने जा रहा है। वहाँ तर्क के लिए कोई जगह नहीं है, और कोई बात या तो (हाँ मैं एक fatalist हूँ), तो मैं सिर्फ कुछ टिप्पणी कर के रूप में हालांकि वे तथ्य थे. कल्पना मत करो मैं दूसरों की कीमत पर एक समूह को बढ़ावा देने में एक निजी हिस्सेदारी है. मैं 78हूँ, कोई वंशज और कोई करीबी रिश्तेदार है और किसी भी राजनीतिक, राष्ट्रीय या धार्मिक समूह के साथ की पहचान नहीं है और लोगों को मैं डिफ़ॉल्ट रूप से कर रहे हैं के रूप में बस के रूप में बाकी सब के रूपमें प्रतिकर्षण संबंध मानते हैं. माता पिता पृथ्वी पर जीवन का सबसे बुरा दुश्मन हैं और, चीजों की व्यापक दृष्टिकोण ले रही है, महिलाओं के रूप में पुरुषों के रूप में हिंसक जब एक तथ्य यह है कि महिलाओं की हिंसा (पुरुषों द्वारा किया है कि सबसे अधिक की तरह) काफी हद तक धीमी गति में किया जाता है समझता है, समय और अंतरिक्ष में एक दूरी पर और ज्यादातर carri प्रॉक्सी द्वारा बाहर ed - उनके वंशजों द्वारा और पुरुषों द्वारा. तेजी से, महिलाओं के बच्चों को सहन की परवाह किए बिना कि क्या वे एक दोस्त है और प्रजनन से एक औरत को रोकने के प्रभाव औसत पर एक आदमी को रोकने से अधिक है, क्योंकि वे प्रजनन बाधाओं हैं. एक विचार है कि लोगों को और उनकी संतान बड़े पैमाने पर जो कुछ भी दुख के लायक हो उनके रास्ते आता है और (दुर्लभ अपवादों के साथ) अमीर और प्रसिद्ध सबसे खराब अपराधी हैं ले जा सकते हैं. मेरिल स्ट्रीप या बिल गेट्स या जे के Rowling और उनके बच्चों में से प्रत्येक भविष्य में पीढ़ियों के लिए प्रति वर्ष topsoil के 50 टन नष्ट कर सकते हैं, जबकि एक भारतीय किसान और उसके 1 टन नष्ट कर सकते हैं. अगर किसी को यह है कि ठीक है इनकार करते हैं, और उनके वंशजों के लिए मैं कहता हूँ "पृथ्वी पर नरक में आपका स्वागत है" (WTHOE). आजकल जोर हमेशा मानव अधिकारों पर है, लेकिन यह स्पष्ट है कि अगर सभ्यता के लिए एक मौका खड़ा है, मानव जिम्मेदारियों मानव अधिकारों की जगह चाहिए. किसी को भी जिम्मेदार नागरिक होने के बिना अधिकार नहीं मिलता है और इसका सबसे पहला अर्थ है कि यह मानवपर्यावरण विनाशहै. सबसे बुनियादी जिम्मेदारी कोई बच्चों को जब तक अपने समाज आप उन्हें उत्पादन करने के लिए पूछता है. एक समाज या एक दुनिया है कि लोगों को यादृच्छिक पर नस्ल की सुविधा देता है हमेशा स्वार्थी जीन द्वारा शोषण किया जाएगा जब तक यह गिर (या एक बिंदु तक पहुँचता है जहां जीवन इतना भयावह है यह जीने के लायक नहीं है). यदि समाज मानव अधिकारों को प्राथमिक के रूप में बनाए रखताहै, तो उनके वंशजों को विश्वास के साथ "WTHOE" कह सकते हैं। आधुनिक दो systems दृश्यसे मानव व्यवहार के लिए एक व्यापक अप करने के लिए तारीख रूपरेखा इच्छुक लोगों को मेरी पुस्तक 'दर्शन, मनोविज्ञान, मिनडी और लुडविगमें भाषा की तार्किक संरचना से परामर्श कर सकते हैं Wittgenstein और जॉन Searle '2 एड (2019). मेरे लेखन के अधिक में रुचि रखने वालों को देख सकते हैं 'बात कर रहेबंदर- दर्शन, मनोविज्ञान, विज्ञान, धर्म और राजनीति पर एक बर्बाद ग्रह --लेख और समीक्षा 2006-2019 3 एड (2019) और आत्मघाती यूटोपियान भ्रम 21st मेंसदी 4वें एड (2019) . (shrink)

In this article, I argue for a new theological conception of grace in which I examine the evolutionary roots of cognitive error, focusing on its relationship to prejudice. Contrary to traditional views, I articulate grace as neural plasticity, the possibility for profound neuronal changes within the brain. In this manner, grace is an immanent component of being evidenced by our cognitive capacities for moral reflection and behavioral adjustment. By defining original sin in relation to cognitive error and reimagining God as (...) a collaborative metaphor for the interdependent processes in nature that produce and shape creation, I identify grace as both a new way of understanding the ontological reality of “sin” and a... (shrink)