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Cited by 664

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The Evolved Apprentice: How Evolution Made Humans Unique

Sterelny, Kim·2012
DOI 10.7551/mitpress/9780262016797.001.0001
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Abstract

A new theory of the evolution of human cognition and human social life that emphasizes the role of information sharing across generations. Over the last three million years or so, our lineage has diverged sharply from those of our great ape relatives. Change has been rapid (in evolutionary terms) and pervasive. Morphology, life history, social life, sexual behavior, and foraging patterns have all shifted sharply away from those of the other great apes. In The Evolved Apprentice, Kim Sterelny argues that the divergence stems from the fact that humans gradually came to enrich the learning environment of the next generation. Humans came to cooperate in sharing information, and to cooperate ecologically and reproductively as well, and these changes initiated positive feedback loops that drove us further from other great apes. Sterelny develops a new theory of the evolution of human cognition and human social life that emphasizes the gradual evolution of information-sharing practices across generations and how these practices transformed human minds and social lives. Sterelny proposes that humans developed a new form of ecological interaction with their environment, cooperative foraging. The ability to cope with the immense variety of human ancestral environments and social forms, he argues, depended not just on adapted minds but also on adapted developmental environments. Bradford Books imprint

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  • Language would prove an extremely powerful coordination tool.

    “In this regard, language would prove an extremely powerful coordination tool (Sterelny, 2012).”

    From The origins of language in teaching (2017) · cites this paper as Sterelny, 2012

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Metadata

Authors
Sterelny, K.
Publisher
The MIT Press
Published
2012-01-27
DOI
10.7551/mitpress/9780262016797.001.0001
Cited by
664
References
0
Language
en

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