Toolmaking and the Evolution of Normative Cognition
Biology and Philosophy 36 (1):1-26 (2021)
Abstract
We are all guided by thousands of norms, but how did our capacity for normative cognition evolve? I propose there is a deep but neglected link between normative cognition and practical skill. In modern humans, complex motor skills and craft skills, such as toolmaking, are guided by internally represented norms of correct performance. Moreover, it is plausible that core components of human normative cognition evolved as a solution to the distinctive problems of transmitting complex motor skills and craft skills, especially skills related to toolmaking, through social learning. If this is correct, the expansion of the normative domain beyond technique to encompass more abstract norms of fairness, reciprocity, ritual and kinship involved the elaboration of a basic platform for the guidance of skilled action by technical norms. This article motivates and defends this “skill hypothesis” for the origin of normative cognition and sets out various ways in which it could be empirically tested.Author's Profile
DOI
10.1007/s10539-020-09777-9
My notes
Similar books and articles
The Containment Problem and the Evolutionary Debunking of Morality.Tyler Millhouse, Lance S. Bush & David Moss - 2016 - Evolution of Morality.
Causal beliefs lead to toolmaking, which require handedness for motor control.Lewis Wolpert - 2003 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 26 (2):242-242.
Unreflective actions? complex motor skill acquisition to enhance spatial cognition.David Moreau - 2015 - Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 14 (2):349-359.
Naïve Normativity: The Social Foundation of Moral Cognition.Kristin Andrews - 2020 - Journal of the American Philosophical Association 6 (1):36-56.
The normative sense: What is universal? What Varies?Elizabeth O'Neill & Edouard Machery - 2018 - In Aaron Zimmerman, Karen Jones & Mark Timmons (eds.), Routledge Handbook on Moral Epistemology. Routledge`.
Unreflective actions? complex motor skill acquisition to enhance spatial cognition.Massimiliano Cappuccio - 2015 - Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 14 (2):349-359.
Sharing our normative worlds: A theory of normative thinking.Ivan Gonzalez-Cabrera - 2017 - Dissertation, Australian National University
Social norms and human normative psychology.Daniel Kelly & Taylor Davis - 2018 - Social Philosophy and Policy 35 (1):54-76.
Norms, normative principles, and explanation: On not getting is from ought.David Henderson - 2002 - Philosophy of the Social Sciences 32 (3):329-364.
How to be skilful: opportunistic robustness and normative sensitivity.Andrew Buskell - 2015 - Synthese 192 (5):1445-1466.
Chimpanzee normativity: evidence and objections.Simon Fitzpatrick - 2020 - Biology and Philosophy 35 (4):1-28.
Correctness and Cognitivism. Remarks on Robert Alexy's Argument from the Claim to Correctness.George Pavlakos - 2012 - Ratio Juris 25 (1):15-30.
The evolution of individualistic norms.Don Ross - 2012 - In Kim Sterelny, Richard Joyce, Brett Calcott & Ben Fraser (eds.), Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication. MIT Press. pp. 17.
Analytics
Added to PP
2020-04-14
Downloads
417 (#26,834)
6 months
110 (#7,182)
2020-04-14
Downloads
417 (#26,834)
6 months
110 (#7,182)
Historical graph of downloads
Author's Profile
Citations of this work
Culture and Cognitive Science.Andreas De Block & Daniel Kelly - 2022 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
If Skill is Normative, Then Norms are Everywhere.Kristin Andrews & Evan Westra - 2021 - Analyse & Kritik 43 (1):203-218.
The Skilful Origins of Human Normative Cognition.Jonathan Birch - 2021 - Analyse & Kritik 43 (1):191-202.
A pluralistic framework for the psychology of norms.Evan Westra & Kristin Andrews - 2022 - Biology and Philosophy 37 (5):1-30.
References found in this work
Surfing Uncertainty: Prediction, Action, and the Embodied Mind.Andy Clark - 2015 - New York: Oxford University Press USA.
Wise Choices, Apt Feelings: A Theory of Normative Judgment.Allan Gibbard - 1990 - Harvard University Press.
A Natural History of Human Morality.Michael Tomasello (ed.) - 2015 - Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
The Grammar of Society: The Nature and Dynamics of Social Norms.Cristina Bicchieri - 2005 - Cambridge University Press.