Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T16:40:27.405Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Instincts or gadgets? Not the debate we should be having

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2019

Dan Sperber Open the ORCID record for Dan Sperber [Opens in a new window]
Dan Sperber*
Affiliation:
Department of Cognitive Science and Department of Philosophy, Central European University, Budapest 1051, Hungary. dan.sperber@gmail.com  dan@sperber.fr
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

I argue, with examples, that most human cognitive skills are neither instincts nor gadgets but mechanisms shaped both by evolved dispositions and by cultural inputs. This shaping can work either through evolved skills fulfilling their function with the help of cultural skills that they contribute to shape, or through cultural skills recruiting evolved skills and adjusting to them.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 42 , 2019 , e183
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ariew, A. (1996) Innateness and canalization. Philosophy of Science 63(3[Suppl]):S19–S27.Google Scholar
Bloch, M. & Sperber, D. (2002) Kinship and evolved psychological dispositions: The mothers brother controversy reconsidered. Current Anthropology 43(5):723–48.Google Scholar
Dehaene, S. & Cohen, L. (2011) The unique role of the visual word form area in reading. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 15(6):254–62.Google Scholar
Henrich, J. (2015) The secret of our success: How culture is driving human evolution, domesticating our species and making us smarter. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Heyes, C. (2018) Cognitive gadgets: The cultural evolution of thinking. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Lake, B. M., Ullman, T. D., Tenenbaum, J. B. & Gershman, S. J. (2017) Building machines that learn and think like people. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 40:e253.Google Scholar
Marler, P. (1991) The instinct to learn. In: The epigenesis of mind: Essays on biology and cognition, ed. Carey, S. and Gelman, R., pp. 591–617. Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Sperber, D. & Hirschfeld, L. A. (2004) The cognitive foundations of cultural stability and diversity. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 8(1):40–46.Google Scholar
Tomasello, M. (1999) The cultural origins of human cognition. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Waddington, C. H. (1942) Canalization of development and the inheritance of acquired characters. Nature 150:563–65.Google Scholar