Upload
phungkhanh
View
234
Download
1
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Bericht aan het publiek
Deze lezing gaat niet over Darwin, niet over Darwinisme en niet over de evolutieleer in het algemeen, maar over een preoccupatie met evolutionaire tijdschalen en biologische kenmerken in de evolutionaire psychologie. Het betoog mondt uit in een lof der kortzichtigheid die schadelijk kan zijn voor uw geestelijke gezondheid. De directie van dit theater is niet aansprakelijk voor eventuele gevolgen.
De Flintstones Fallacy
1. Platoonse geesten
2. Yabba Dabba Doo!
3. Volkspsychologie
4. Epistemische pariteit
5. Lof der kortzichtigheid
Ontwikkelings-psychologie
Evolutionairepsychologie
Cognitievearcheologie
Paleo-antropologie
Sinds 1990
“Much modern thinking is still based on abilities that evolved long ago. It is very unlikely that the advent of modern humans was marked by a total reorganization of the brain; it is probable that much modern thinking still consists of processes that evolved in earlier times. Many modern human activities place minimal demands on problem solving ability (the overworked driving-to-work example). More likely, the neural change leading to modernity was modest and added to the abilities already possessed by pre-modern populations [such as Neandertals]. If we can identify and peel away this final acquisition, we should be able to describe the Neandertal mind itself.”
Thomas Wynn & Frederick Coolidge, ‘The Expert Neandertal Mind’, Journal of Human Evolution 46, 2004, pp. 467-487.
Palaeo-anthropologist Thomas Wynn (left) and
psychologist Frederick Coolidge (right)
Psychologische continuïteit
“I hope it is obvious that P-consciousness is not a cultural construction. (...) The idea would be that there was a time at which people genetically like us ate, drank, and had sex, but there was nothing it was like for them to do these things. (...) Ridiculous!”
“What about A-consciousness? Could there have been a time when humans who are biologically the same as us never had the contents of their perceptions and thoughts poised for free use in reasoning or in rational control of action? Is this ability one that culture imparts to us as children? (...) Again, there is no reason to take such an idea seriously. Very much lower animals are A-conscious, presumably without any such concept.”
Ned Block, ‘On a confusion about a function of consciousness’, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1995.
Ned Block
Psychologische continuïteit
“It would be difficult to overemphasize just how strange the handaxe is when compared to the products of modern culture. It does not fit easily into our understanding of what tools are, and its makers do not fit easily into our understanding of what humans are.”
Thomas Wynn, ‘Handaxe Enigmas’, World Archaeology 27(1), 1995, p. 21).
Gevaar van overinterpretatie
“The emergence of cave art in Europe about 30,000 years ago is widely believed to be evidence that by this time human beings had developed sophisticated capacities for symbolization and communication. However, comparison of the cave art with the drawings made by a young autistic girl, Nadia, reveals surprising similarities in content and style. Nadia, despite her graphic skills, was mentally defective and had virtually no language. I argue in the light of this comparison that the existence of the cave art cannot be the proof which it is usually assumed to be that the humans of the Upper Palaeolithic had essentially ‘modern’ minds.”
Nicholas Humphrey, ‘Cave Art, Autism, and the Evolution of the Human Mind’, Cambridge Archaeological Journal 8:2 (1998), pp. 165-191.
Bedrieglijke intuïties
From: Nicholas Humphrey, ‘Cave Art, Autism, and the Evolution of the Human Mind’, Cambridge Archaeological Journal 8:2 (1998), pp. 165-191.
Horses, Chauvet cave
Horses by Nadia, age 3 yr. 5 months
Horses, Lascaux cave
Horses by Nadia, age 3 yr. 5 months
From: Nicholas Humphrey, ‘Cave Art, Autism, and the Evolution of the Human Mind’, Cambridge Archaeological Journal 8:2 (1998), pp. 165-191.
Bison, Chauvet
Cow by Nadia, age 4 yr.
From: Nicholas Humphrey, ‘Cave Art, Autism, and the Evolution of the Human Mind’, Cambridge Archaeological Journal 8:2 (1998), pp. 165-191.
“Our minds, the only minds we know from the outset, are the standard with which we must begin. Without this agreement, we’ll just be fooling ourselves, talking rubbish without knowing it.”
Daniel C. Dennett, Kinds of Minds (1996), p. 4).
Zonder volkspychologie geen psychologie
Als de epistemische praktijk van onze huidige volkspsychologie het uitgangspunt is voor ons begrip van huidige geesten, dan moeten de praktijken van afwijkende volkspsychologieën (als die er zijn) dienen als uitgangspunt voor de reconstructie van andere soorten geesten.
Beginsel van epistemische pariteit
Julian Jaynes(1920-1997)
Jan Sleutels, ‘Greek Zombies’, Philosophical Psychology 19 (2006), pp. 177-197.
1976
Bicameral Mind
Atè
Thymos
Moira
Voice of Zeus, ...
Conscious Mind
Mind-space
Analog I
A-consciousness
CMS
Conclusie
Binnen de geschiedenis van de geest is kortzichtigheid een deugd. Zoek naar verschillen in het recente verleden, niet naar overeenkomsten met verre voorouders.
Houd er rekening mee dat onze geest specialer is dan meestal wordt gedacht, contingent en historisch fragiel.