The Evolution of Mind

by Cummins, Denise Dellarosa; Allen, Colin

• ISBN13: 9780195110531
• ISBN10: 0195110536
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-06-11
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Our understanding of the human mind has radically changed in recent years--from the unified mind once envisioned by Rene Descartes over three hundred years ago to a new understanding of mind as a set of specialized cognitive components gradually accumulated in our evolutionary past. As aresult, many scientists and philosophers now believe that our minds emerged out of the same type of evolutionary processes that have shaped our bodies. In The Evolution of Mind, outstanding figures on the cutting edge of evolutionary psychology follow clues provided by current neuroscientific evidence to illuminate many puzzling questions of human cognitive evolution. With contributions from psychologists, ethologists, anthropologists, andphilosophers, the book offers a broad range of approaches to explore the mysteries of the minds evolution--from investigating the biological functions of human cognition to drawing comparisons between human and animal cognitive abilities. This interdisciplinary work presents a comparative andevolutionary perspective on a wide variety of topics, including mental algorithms for reasoning about contingencies, quantities, social norms, and the minds of others; social play and communicative abilities; thought and language, and the role of Darwin's theory of natural selection in evolutionarypsychology. Written in a highly readable style, The Evolution of Mind will appeal to a broad range of researchers and students and help set the agenda for the field for years to come.

Author Biography

Denise Dellarosa Cummins, Ph.D. is with the Department of Psychology, California State University, Sacramento. Colin Allen, Ph.D., is with the Department of Philosophy, Texas A&M University.

Table of Contents

Contributors	vii
Introduction	3	(6)
DENISE DELLAROSA CUMMINS
COLIN ALLEN
1 Ecological Intelligence: An Adaptation for Frequencies	9	(21)
GERD GIGERENZER
2 Social Norms and Other Minds: The Evolutionary Roots of Higher Cognition	30	(21)
DENISE DELLAROSA CUMMINS
3 Building a Cognitive Creature from a Set of Primitives: Evolutionary and Developmental Insights	51	(56)
MARC HAUSER
SUSAN CAREY
4 An Evolved Capacity for Number	107	(1)
KAREN WYNN
5 Cognitive Ethology: The Minds of Children and Animals	107	(55)
CAROLYN A. RISTAU
6 Playing with Play: What Can We Learn about Cognition, Negotiation, and Evolution?	162	(21)
MARC BEKOFF
7 The Evolution of Reference	183	(21)
COLIN ALLEN
ERIC SAIDEL
8 Some Issues in the Evolution of Language and Thought	204	(20)
PAUL BLOOM
9 Morgan's Canon	224	(19)
ELLIOTT SOBER
10 Do's and Don'ts for Darwinizing Psychology	243	(17)
LAWRENCE A. SHAPIRO
Index	260