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Thought in a Hostile World is an exploration of the evolution of cognition, especially human cognition, by one of today's foremost philosophers of biology and of mind. The central idea of the book is that thought is a response to threat. Competitors and enemies make life hard by their direct physical effects. But they also make life hard by eroding epistemic conditions. They lie. They hide themselves. They seem other than what they are. Sterelny uses this and related ideas to explore from an evolutionary perspective the relationship between folk psychology and an integrated scientific conception of human cognition. In the process, he examines how and why human minds have evolved. The book argues that humans are cognitively, socially, and sexually very unlike the other great apes, and that despite our relatively recent separation from their lineages, human social and cognitive evolution has been driven by unusual evolutionary mechanisms. In developing his own picture of the descent of the human mind, Sterelny further offers a critique of nativist, modular versions of evolutionary psychology. This volume will be of vital interest to scholars and students interested in cognitive science, philosophy of mind, and evolutionary psychology.
Thought in a Hostile World is an exploration of the evolution of cognition, especially human cognition, by one of today's foremost philosophers of biology and of mind. The central idea of the book is that thought is a response to threat. Competitors and enemies make life hard by their direct physical effects. But they also make life hard by eroding epistemic conditions. They lie. They hide themselves. They seem other than what they are. Sterelny uses this and related ideas to explore from an evolutionary perspective the relationship between folk psychology and an integrated scientific conception of human cognition. In the process, he examines how and why human minds have evolved. The book argues that humans are cognitively, socially, and sexually very unlike the other great apes, and that despite our relatively recent separation from their lineages, human social and cognitive evolution has been driven by unusual evolutionary mechanisms. In developing his own picture of the descent of the human mind, Sterelny further offers a critique of nativist, modular versions of evolutionary psychology. This volume will be of vital interest to scholars and students interested in cognitive science, philosophy of mind, and evolutionary psychology.
Preface.
Part I: Assembling Intentionality:.
1. Evolutionary Naturalism:.
Two Projects Of Evolutionary Naturalism.
The Simple Co-Ordination Thesis.
2. Detection Systems:.
The Environmental Complexity Hypothesis.
Detection Systems.
The Power Of Detection Systems.
Transparent And Translucent Worlds.
Robust Tracking Systems.
3. Fuels For Success:.
Decoupled Representation.
Response Breadth.
Fuels For Success: Space.
Fuels For Success: Intervention In The Material World.
Reprise.
4. Fuels For Success: The Social Intelligence Hypothesis:.
The Cognitive Demands Of Social Life.
The Social Intelligence Hypothesis.
The Cognitive World Of The Great Apes: Imitation.
The Cognitive World Of Great Apes: Tracking Other Minds.
5. The Descent Of Preference:.
Internal Environments.
The Forager’s Dilemma.
Preference Eliminativism?.
Preference-Like States.
Part II: Not Just Another Species Of Large Mammal:.
6. Reconstructing Hominid Evolution:.
Testing Theories Of Human Evolution.
From Cognitive Device To Evolutionary History.
Making Progress.
An Example: Tomasello’s Conjecture.
Conclusions.
7. The Co-Operation Explosion:.
The Co-Operative Primate.
Group Selection And Human Co-Operation.
The Ecological Trigger Of Hominid Co-Operation.
Coalition And Enforcement.
Commitment To Enforcement.
Upshot.
8. The Self-Made Species:.
Ecological Engineers.
Cumulative Niche Construction: The Cognitive Condition.
Cumulative Niche Construction: The Social Condition.
Hominid Epistemic Engineering.
Downstream Epistemic Engineering.
9. Heterogeneous Environments And Variable Response:.
Phenotypic Plasticity.
Is Plasticity An Adaptation?.
Reprise.
Part III: The Fate Of The Folk:.
10. The Massive Modularity Hypothesis:.
Massive Modularity.
Language: Paradigm Or Outlier?.
Communicative Intentions.
Fodor’s Modules And Their Limits.
Inward Bound.
Evolution And Encapsulation.
The Poverty Of The Stimulus.
The Case Of Folk Biology.
Modularity And The Frame Problem.
11. Interpreting Other Agents:.
A Theory Of Mind Module?.
Deconstructing The Folk Psychology Module.
Interpretation, Perception And Scaffolded Learning.
Truth, Evidence And Success.
Co-Ordination And Meaning.
Something New Under The Sun?.
References.
Index
Kim Sterelny is Professor of Philosophy at Victoria University of Wellington and at the Research School of Social Science at the Australian National University. He is the author of The Representational Theory of Mind (Blackwell, 1990) and the co-author, with Michael Devitt, of Language and Reality (second edition, 1999) and, with Paul Griffiths, Sex and Death: An Introduction to Philosophy of Biology (1999).
"Written with both clarity and rigor, Thought in a Hostile World is
a richly informed and sophisticated account of the evolution of
complex cognition. Sterelny's arguments appeal, not so much because
they reinforce our preconceptions – on the contrary, we are
frequently challenged – but rather because they are informed,
well-reasoned, and leave us with plenty to think about. Sterelny's
book could aptly be renamed Clear Thought in a Muddled World and
evolutionary psychologists, in particular, would benefit from
reading it." Kevin N. Laland, University of St. Andrews
"This book is a godsend for anyone wanting to understand the
evolution of human cognition without buying into the wholesale
modularism of recent evolutionary psychology. Densely, but
elegantly, written and replete with fascinating empirical detail,
this book represents a major advance in the philosophical
understanding of human cognitive evolution." Fiona Cowie,
California Institute of Technology
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