Abstract

As the opening lecture to the CRASSH symposium (14-16 May, 2009): “Why aren’t the social sciences Darwinian?” held at the Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, Prof Tomasello will speak on THURSDAY , 14th of May at 5pm. This lecture is free and open to the public.

Human beings are biologically adapted for cultural life in ways that other primates are not. Humans have unique motivations and cognitive skills for understanding other persons as cooperative agents with whom one can share emotions, experience, and collaborative actions (shared intentionality). The motivations and skills involved emerge in human ontogeny at around one year of age, as infants begin to participate with other persons in various kinds of collaborative and joint attentional activities (cultural practices), including linguistic communication. Chimpanzees understand important aspects of intentional action – specifically that others pursue goals and perceive things relevant to those goals – especially in competitive situations. But our nearest primate relatives do not seem to have the motivations and cognitive skills necessary to engage in activities involving collaboration, shared intentionality, and, in general, things cultural.