How homo became sapiens: on the evolution of thinking by Peter Gärdenfors

By Peter Gärdenfors

Our skill to 'think' is admittedly certainly one of our so much perplexing features. What it might be wish to be not able to imagine? What would it not be wish to lack self-awareness? The complexity of this job is impressive. 'Thinking' contains the interplay of a variety of psychological processes--attention, emotion, reminiscence, making plans, self-consciousness, loose will, and language. So the place did those methods come up? What evolutionary benefits have been bestowed upon people with a capability to misinform, to plot, to empathize, or to appreciate the goal of others? during this compelling new paintings, Peter Gardenfors embarks on an evolutionary detective tale to attempt and resolve one of many large mysteries surrounding human existence--how has the trendy human being's frame of mind come into life. He begins through taking in flip the extra simple cognitive methods, comparable to realization and reminiscence, then builds upon those to discover extra advanced behaviors, reminiscent of self-consciousness, mindreading, and imitation. Having performed this, he examines the results of "putting concept into the area" -i.e., utilizing exterior media like cave work, drawings, and writing. Immensely readable and funny, the ebook should be precious for college kids in psychology and biology, and obtainable to readers of renowned technology.

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By Peter Gärdenfors

Our skill to 'think' is admittedly certainly one of our so much perplexing features. What it might be wish to be not able to imagine? What would it not be wish to lack self-awareness? The complexity of this job is impressive. 'Thinking' contains the interplay of a variety of psychological processes--attention, emotion, reminiscence, making plans, self-consciousness, loose will, and language. So the place did those methods come up? What evolutionary benefits have been bestowed upon people with a capability to misinform, to plot, to empathize, or to appreciate the goal of others? during this compelling new paintings, Peter Gardenfors embarks on an evolutionary detective tale to attempt and resolve one of many large mysteries surrounding human existence--how has the trendy human being's frame of mind come into life. He begins through taking in flip the extra simple cognitive methods, comparable to realization and reminiscence, then builds upon those to discover extra advanced behaviors, reminiscent of self-consciousness, mindreading, and imitation. Having performed this, he examines the results of "putting concept into the area" -i.e., utilizing exterior media like cave work, drawings, and writing. Immensely readable and funny, the ebook should be precious for college kids in psychology and biology, and obtainable to readers of renowned technology.

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Additional info for How homo became sapiens: on the evolution of thinking

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Beasts of prey constitute a greater hazard on the savannah than in the rain forest, and gradually the hominids gathered in bigger groups for better protection and to acquire food more effectively. Over time the brain grew in size in order to cope with the harsher way of life and the increased social complexity. Natural selection saw to it that walking upright (and later, running) became more natural by reshaping the bones of the pelvis, resulting in a smaller and narrower pelvic girdle. In order for the head of a newborn to pass through the pelvis, hominid children were born increasingly underdeveloped.

A treatise of human nature, Book 1, Part rv, Section VI. iii. Johnson ( 1 987). iv. Tulving ( 1 985). v. Dennett ( 1 978), Chapter 8. vi. Tomasello and Call ( 1 997), pp. 370-4. vii. Damasio ( 1 995). viii. Hawkins and Kandel ( 1 984).

1 0 H O W H O M O B E C A M E S A P I E N S "Talk about a guy who's living in a world of his own:' snorts Egon. Darwin said that humans were just another of the animals. One result of his theory of evolution is that most people nowadays agree that you can talk about thinking and consciousness even among animals whose brains do not have all the functions of human brains. Since thinking is a complex phenomenon, there is no simple 'Yes' or 'No' answer to the question of whether an organism (or an artificial system) can think; one should talk about levels of thinking.

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