INTRODUCTION

A key feature in evolution is how well the behavioral/physiological adaptation works, and how flexible the particular adaptation can be when expanded into diverse contexts. Our evolution reveals a conception, not always accurate, that rigidity is a feature of lower species, whereas flexibility is a feature of primates such as us. Corticalization of function reflects the larger role that social, cognitive and anticipatory regulation of the social and internal milieu play in the organization of behavioral and physiological viability (James, 1890/1952).

Responding to diverse social signals requires a flexible brain with a range of behavioral options. Our evolution is linked to our cognitive competence and one feature of this is our social contact, both cooperative and competitive. Competition often requires cooperative understanding to ensure success, depending upon one's view of evolution and the cultural context in which cooperation and competition are understood. Evolution has selected both and one should be wary about mythologizing one or the other in our conceptual framework. This chapter orients the reader towards several conceptions of evolution and their importance in understanding our cephalic expansion, which underlies our diverse forms of behavioral and physiological adaptations to changing contexts.

EXPLANATIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF EVOLUTION

The great taxonomists, starting from Aristotle, have created long catalogues of natural objects and, in this case, the lineages relating biological taxa and species. Recognition of kinds of objects is a predilection that comes with our cognitive endowment; we are taxonomic animals. Evolution favored this cognitive ability in our species.