“It Just Must Be True”: Tomasello on Cognition and Morality
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Geoffrey Galt Harpham
Abstract
Michael Tomasello's “natural histories” of thinking and human morality argue for strong connections between advanced human attributes and the capabilities of nonhuman primates, even as they establish profound differences between them. The core of his argument, the “shared intentionality hypothesis,” asserts that what is unique to the human species is the capacity for collaborative behaviors involving mutualism and reciprocity. This hypothesis has serious implications not only for the understanding of the human species but also for such apparently unrelated fields as literary studies.
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© Academic Studies Press
Articles in the same Issue
- Back Matter
- Front Matter
- INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST ISSUE
- Why We Need a Journal with the Title Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture
- SPECIAL SECTION: BELIEFS ABOUT HUMAN NATURE, CULTURE, AND SCIENCE
- A Cross-Disciplinary Survey of Beliefs about Human Nature, Culture, and Science
- Epistemic Territory and Embodied Imagination
- Growing Primacy of Human Agency in the Coevolution Process
- Human Nature Evolved to Enable Culture
- A Cultural Psychological View on Human Culture and Cultural Development
- Evolutionary Approaches to Culture in Sociology
- Response to the ESIC Questionnaire
- Charles Darwin on the Aesthetic Evolution of Man
- Gender Identity: Nature and Nurture Working Together
- Against Dichotomy
- The Best-Loved Story of All Time: Overcoming All Obstacles to Be Reunited, Evoking Kama Muta
- Stories of Minds and Bodies: The Role of Evolutionary Perspectives in Understanding Narrative
- History from an Evolutionary Perspective
- Identity Politics in Science
- Human Nature
- Cultural Evolution and Gene–Culture Coevolution
- Sexual Dials (Not Switches) Theory: An Evolutionary Perspective on Sex and Gender Complexity
- ARTICLES
- The Bad Breaks of Walter White: An Evolutionary Approach to the Fictional Antihero
- Cognitive Evolution and the Transmission of Popular Narratives: A Literature Review and Application to Urban Legends
- Kurt Vonnegut's “Homage to Santa Rosalia”: The “Patroness of Evolutionary Studies” and Galapagos
- Art in Early Human Evolution: Socially Driven Art Forms versus Material Art
- Animal Metaphors Revisited: New Uses of Art, Literature, and Science in an Environmental Studies Course
- Poetic Justice and Edith Wharton's “Xingu”: An Evolutionary Psychological Approach
- REVIEW ESSAYS
- Neuroaesthetics: The State of the Domain in 2017
- “It Just Must Be True”: Tomasello on Cognition and Morality
- Recent Critiques of Dual Inheritance Theory
- BOOK REVIEWS
- Antweiler, Christoph. 2016. Our Common Denominator: Human Universals Revisited.
- Beecher, Donald, 2016. Adapted Brains and Imaginary Worlds: Cognitive Science and the Literature of the Renaissance.
- Carroll, Sean B. 2016. The Serengeti Rules: The Quest to Discover How Life Works and Why It Matters.
- Eibl, Karl. 2016. Evolution—Kognition—Dichtung: Zur Anthropologie der Literatur.
- Gopnik, Alison. The Gardner and the Carpenter: What the New Science of Child Development Tells Us about the Relationship between Parents and Children.
- Hallam, Susan, Ian Cross, and Michael Thaut, eds. 2009. The Oxford Handbook of Music Psychology.
- Harari, Yuval Noah. 2015. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.
- Henrich, Joseph. 2015. The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter.
- Johnson, Dominic. 2016. God Is Watching You: How the Fear of God Makes Us Human.
- Kaufman, Scott Barry, and Carolyn Gregoire. 2015. Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind.
- McConachie, Bruce. 2015. Evolution, Cognition, and Performance.
- Parrish, Alex C. 2014. Adaptive Rhetoric: Evolution, Culture and the Art of Persuasion.
- Paul, Robert A. 2015. Mixed Messages: Cultural and Genetic Inheritance in the Constitution of Human Society.
- Ridley, Rosalind. 2016. Peter Pan and the Mind of J. M. Barrie: An Exploration of Cognition and Consciousness.
- Van Schaik, Carel, and Kai Michel. 2016. The Good Book of Human Nature: An Evolutionary Reading of the Bible.
- Tague, Gregory F. 2014. Making Mind: Moral Sense and Consciousness in Philosophy, Science, and Literature.
- Contributors
Articles in the same Issue
- Back Matter
- Front Matter
- INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST ISSUE
- Why We Need a Journal with the Title Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture
- SPECIAL SECTION: BELIEFS ABOUT HUMAN NATURE, CULTURE, AND SCIENCE
- A Cross-Disciplinary Survey of Beliefs about Human Nature, Culture, and Science
- Epistemic Territory and Embodied Imagination
- Growing Primacy of Human Agency in the Coevolution Process
- Human Nature Evolved to Enable Culture
- A Cultural Psychological View on Human Culture and Cultural Development
- Evolutionary Approaches to Culture in Sociology
- Response to the ESIC Questionnaire
- Charles Darwin on the Aesthetic Evolution of Man
- Gender Identity: Nature and Nurture Working Together
- Against Dichotomy
- The Best-Loved Story of All Time: Overcoming All Obstacles to Be Reunited, Evoking Kama Muta
- Stories of Minds and Bodies: The Role of Evolutionary Perspectives in Understanding Narrative
- History from an Evolutionary Perspective
- Identity Politics in Science
- Human Nature
- Cultural Evolution and Gene–Culture Coevolution
- Sexual Dials (Not Switches) Theory: An Evolutionary Perspective on Sex and Gender Complexity
- ARTICLES
- The Bad Breaks of Walter White: An Evolutionary Approach to the Fictional Antihero
- Cognitive Evolution and the Transmission of Popular Narratives: A Literature Review and Application to Urban Legends
- Kurt Vonnegut's “Homage to Santa Rosalia”: The “Patroness of Evolutionary Studies” and Galapagos
- Art in Early Human Evolution: Socially Driven Art Forms versus Material Art
- Animal Metaphors Revisited: New Uses of Art, Literature, and Science in an Environmental Studies Course
- Poetic Justice and Edith Wharton's “Xingu”: An Evolutionary Psychological Approach
- REVIEW ESSAYS
- Neuroaesthetics: The State of the Domain in 2017
- “It Just Must Be True”: Tomasello on Cognition and Morality
- Recent Critiques of Dual Inheritance Theory
- BOOK REVIEWS
- Antweiler, Christoph. 2016. Our Common Denominator: Human Universals Revisited.
- Beecher, Donald, 2016. Adapted Brains and Imaginary Worlds: Cognitive Science and the Literature of the Renaissance.
- Carroll, Sean B. 2016. The Serengeti Rules: The Quest to Discover How Life Works and Why It Matters.
- Eibl, Karl. 2016. Evolution—Kognition—Dichtung: Zur Anthropologie der Literatur.
- Gopnik, Alison. The Gardner and the Carpenter: What the New Science of Child Development Tells Us about the Relationship between Parents and Children.
- Hallam, Susan, Ian Cross, and Michael Thaut, eds. 2009. The Oxford Handbook of Music Psychology.
- Harari, Yuval Noah. 2015. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.
- Henrich, Joseph. 2015. The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter.
- Johnson, Dominic. 2016. God Is Watching You: How the Fear of God Makes Us Human.
- Kaufman, Scott Barry, and Carolyn Gregoire. 2015. Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind.
- McConachie, Bruce. 2015. Evolution, Cognition, and Performance.
- Parrish, Alex C. 2014. Adaptive Rhetoric: Evolution, Culture and the Art of Persuasion.
- Paul, Robert A. 2015. Mixed Messages: Cultural and Genetic Inheritance in the Constitution of Human Society.
- Ridley, Rosalind. 2016. Peter Pan and the Mind of J. M. Barrie: An Exploration of Cognition and Consciousness.
- Van Schaik, Carel, and Kai Michel. 2016. The Good Book of Human Nature: An Evolutionary Reading of the Bible.
- Tague, Gregory F. 2014. Making Mind: Moral Sense and Consciousness in Philosophy, Science, and Literature.
- Contributors
