Evolution of Mind: From evolutionary psychology to cultural evolution theory
December 24, 2019 09:49 Source: "China Social Sciences" December 24, 2019 Issue 1843 Author: Zhang Zixia

Since the rise of social biology in the 1970s,Researchers have tried to explain the evolutionary theory of human mind,And therefore created a "evolutionary psychology"。Although the evolutionary psychology has a strong explanation,But its core argument has always been challenged from various aspects。The "chemical apprentice model" proposed by a biological philosopher represented by K. Sterelny believes,Evolution Psychology Explanation ignores the ability of human active transformation of the environment。In fact,The cultural environment outside the body also plays a vital role in the process of human mind evolution。

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In the general sense,,Evolution Psychology has a broad sense and narrow sense。The evolutionary psychology in a broad sense means that the research program of human mind is explained by evolution;,RMB geneticism、Large -scale module theory。Because the evolutionary psychology of scientific theory should be actual operationable,Therefore, people usually refer to the narrow evolutionary psychology when mentioning evolutionary psychology。The idea of ​​evolutionary psychology is roughly as follows。

First,The evolution of human mind is because the human brain has evolved。bet365 live casino games But scientific research indicates,The brain capacity of modern people is basically the same as the brain capacity of the stone instrument.。Therefore,Ask modern people why there is such a mental characteristics,We seem to focus our attention in the Stone Age。Specifically,We need to examine what kind of environment of human beings at that time,What kind of choice pressure is faced with,Based on this, explain why some psychological tendencies can be evolved。

Next,Evolution psychologists believe that when explaining the human mind, the so -called "central processing system" should be assumed。They advocate to understand the mind in a fully modular way,In their opinion,Human minds are like a Swiss military knife,It consists of an independent "psychological module",Each module is used to solve the special problem encountered by humans in the Stone Age。Due to the huge number of such problems,Therefore, human beings have evolved a large -scale psychological module,These psychological modules are biological adaptors。

So far,Evolution psychologists can explain a variety of psychological phenomena based on these two theoretical commitments。For example,Why are we afraid of snakes,But not afraid of cars -although the number of people who died in a car accident each year is far higher than the number of people who died in snake venom。This is because there is no modern means of transportation in the Stone Age,and our ancestors face the threat of snakes。bet365 Play online games To solve this problem,The psychological module of human evolution has evolved (that is, when you see snakes, you tend to escape)。

Although the evolutionary psychology has a strong explanation,But many researchers believe that it is just a story fabricated by evolutionary psychologists。From the theoretical level,Some opponents question the theory of large -scale modules,I believe that there are still some mechanisms for dealing with general problems (such as reasoning) in human mind,The current popular dual process theory is a good example。Other opponents think,Evolution psychology errorsly use gene changes as the only reason for human mental changes,We should adopt genes -cultural common evolution models when explaining human mind。

  "Homo sapiens paradox" and the predicament of evolutionary psychology

Archaeological research indicates,About 500,000 years ago, there was a whites that are similar to modern human brain capacity。But until about 100,000 years ago,The social life of the primitive person only shows a form similar to modern humans。For example,In the late update (about 300,000 years ago),The stone artifact used by the primitive people is mainly the Ayarel ax and the Okow -style stone chip and stone core; until about 100,000 years ago,The diversity of artificial products only shows a significant growth trend。An consensus reached by the current scholars is,The behavior of primitive people began to have modernity about 80,000 to 120,000 bet365 Play online games years ago。So,How do we explain this phenomenon?

If the point of view of geneticism is adopted like an evolutionary psychologist,I believe that genetic similarity contains cognitive similarity,So you will face the so -called "Sapiens Paradox": If the gene of the wise is different from the early primitive people,and genetic differences are the only decisive influencing element for human mind,So why do you look at the archeological records,Those new genes cannot quickly show their utility? Why does the industry have evolved the huge brain capacity of the wise capacity to perform similar to modern people after hundreds of thousands of years?

Some researchers think,The best way to get out of this dilemma is to abandon the simplicity model of traditional evolutionary psychology,Refuse to think that the changes in human mind and behavior mode only correspond to changes in genes。Stini and others pointed out,When people used to explain human minds and behaviors in the past,Often just explores how our ancestors passively adapt to the environment,Ignoring their subjective initiative to transform the environment。In fact,Many of our cognitive ability and behavior tendencies are not inherited from genetic inheritance,Instead, obtain it through learning in the cultural and ecological positions where it is located。The change of human behavior mode in the "Hommer Paradox" is not a change of genes,but changes in the cultural environment。

 Cultural evolution and embedded cognition

Bet365 lotto review From Stina's view,Construction of cultural ecology is conducive to people faster、Get information securely。On the one hand,The cultural environment as a "cognitive capital pool" will provide knowledge about community members about the external world。With its help,Each generation no longer needs to know a completely strange world from scratch。Converse,Because each generation can put new "cognitive capital" into the "capital pool",The accumulation of knowledge becomes possible。When "the original accumulation of cognitive capital" exceeds a certain threshold,The entire human society will have qualitative changes。In this way, it seems more reasonable to explain the related issues in the "Hommer Paradox"。On the other hand,Constructing the feedback circuit that can change the trial and error,to make the community members more securely gain knowledge。For example,It allows people to get the information of "beasts in the forest" without just entering the forest -maybe when you propose to enter the forest,Other people will remind them if they are。From this perspective,When the cultural ecology is successfully established,Our ancestors will learn in the entire cultural environment like apprentices,The significance of the apprenticeship is to avoid the high cost of avoiding behaviors (such as incorrect materials during casting) (such as troubles caused by failed to deliver in time)。Based on this consideration,bet365 best casino games Stini refers to his gene -cultural common evolutionary theory as the "chemical apprentice model"。This model is more traditional evolutionary psychology than traditional evolution,Can better explain the phenomenon described in the "Homoor Paradox",is a more credible scientific hypothesis。

The theory of cultural evolution of Stini can well fit the current popular embedded cognition theory。According to the embedded cognitive theory,We should not only consider the condition of intracranial occurrence when explaining human mind,It is necessary to regard "brain -body -world" as a whole。This is because many of our cognitive activities must be based on things in the world as "scaffolding"。For example, when the slightly complicated calculation is performed,We will use paper and pen to complete this activity。Similarly,In a chemical apprentice model,The cultural environment plays the role of "scaffolding"。The error of evolutionary psychology is that all our psychological tendency and behavior tendency is determined by genes。But maybe more reasonable speculation is,Cognitive achievements of human beings so far,To a large extent on the "scaffolding" provided by the cultural environment for our ancestors。

  (Author Unit: School of Public Management of Nanjing Normal University)

Editor in charge: Zhang Jing
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