Tension in the Natural History of Human Thinking

Authors

  • Henrike Moll University of Notre

Keywords:

shared intentionality, cooperation, joint attention, evolutionary theory, human phylogeny, human development

Abstract

Michael Tomasello has greatly expanded our knowledge of human cognition and how it differs from that of other animals. In this commentary to his recent book A Natural History of Human Thinking, I first critique some of the presuppositions and arguments of his evolutionary story about how homo sapiens’ cognition emerged. For example, I question the strategy of relying on the modern chimpanzee as a model for our last shared ancestor, and I doubt the idea that what changed first over evolutionary time was hominin behavior, which then in turn brought about changes in cognition. In the second half of the commentary I aim to show that the author oscillates between an additive and a transformative account of human shared intentionality. I argue that shared intentionality shapes cognition in its entirety and therefore precludes the possibility that humans have the same, individual intentionality (as shown in, e.g. their instrumental reasoning) as other apes.

References

Almécija, S., J. B. Smaers, and W. L. Jungers (2015): “The Evolution of Human and Ape Hand Proportions”. In: Nature Communications 6, p. 7717. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms8717

Hanus, D., N. Mendes, C. Tennie, and J. Call (2011): “Comparing the Performances of Apes (Gorilla Gorilla, Pan Troglodytes, Pongo Pygmaeus) and Human Children (Homo Sapiens) in the Floating Peanut Task”. In: PLoS ONE 6. No. 6, p. 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0019555

Herrmann, E., M. Hernandez-Lloreda, J. Call, B. Hare, and M. Tomasello (2010): “The Structure of Individual Differences in the Cognitive Abilities of Children and Chimpanzees”. In: Psychological Science 21. No. 1, p. 102–110. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797609356511

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Tomasello, M. (2014): A Natural History of Human Thinking. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674726369

Vaesen, K. (2014): “Chimpocentrism and Reconstructions of Human Evolution (A Timely Reminder)”. In: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 45, p. 12–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2013.12.004

Wobber, V., E. Herrmann, B. Hare, R. Wrangham, and M. Tomasello (2013): “Differences in the Early Cognitive Development of Children and Great Apes”. In: Developmental Psychobiology 56. No. 3, p. 547–573.

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Published

2016-03-23

How to Cite

Moll, Henrike. 2016. “Tension in the Natural History of Human Thinking”. Journal of Social Ontology 2 (1). Vienna, Austria:65-73. https://journalofsocialontology.org/index.php/jso/article/view/6842.

Issue

Section

Book Symposium