Essential Building Blocks of Human Nature (The Frontiers Collection)

"To understand why we humans are as we are, it is necessary to look at the essential building blocks that comprise our nature. The foundations of this structure are our evolutionary origins as primates and our social roots. Upon these rest features such as our emotions, language and aesthetic preferences, with our self-perceptions, self-deceptions and thirst for knowledge right at the top. The unifying force holding these blocks together is evolutionary theory. Evolution provides a deeper understanding of human nature and, in particular, of the common roots of these different perspectives. To build a reliable and coherent model of man, leading authors from fields as diverse as primatology, anthropology, neurobiology and philosophy have joined forces to present essays each describing their own expert perspective. Together they provide a convincing and complete picture of our own human nature"--Page 4 of cover Preface 7 Contents 8 List of Contributors 11 Introduction 13 Chapter 1 Our Origins: How and Why We Do and Do Not Differ from Primates 16 1.1 Introduction 17 1.2 Why Humans Do Not Differ from Primates 18 1.3 How Humans Do Not Differ from Primates 21 1.4 How Humans Do Differ from Primates 22 1.5 Why Humans Do Differ from Primates 23 References 24 Chapter 2 Our Children: Parental Decisions — How Much to Invest in Your Offspring 28 2.1 Introduction to Parental Investment Theory 28 2.2 Life History Theory and Tradeoffs 30 2.2.1 Current vs. Future Reproduction 30 2.2.2 Quantity vs. Quality 31 2.3 Who Invests: Mothers, Fathers, Grandmothers, and Others 34 2.3.1 Mothers and Fathers 34 2.3.2 Grandmothers and Others 36 2.3.3 Are Humans Cooperative Breeders? 37 2.4 Parent–Offspring and Sibling Conflicts 38 2.4.1 Infanticide and Neglect 38 2.4.2 Differential Investment and Inheritance 40 2.5 Sons vs. Daughters: Sex Biases in Parental Investment 41 2.5.1 The Trivers–Willard Effect 41 2.5.2 Local Resource Competition and Enhancement 42 2.5.3 Marriage Payments as Sex-Biased Parental Investment 43 2.6 Conclusions 44 References 45 Chapter 3 Our Social Roots: How Local Ecology Shapes Our Social Structures 50 3.1 Adaptation and Maladaptation 50 3.2 Testing Hypotheses About Adaptation in Human Cultural Behavior Through Cross-Cultural Comparison 53 3.2.1 Ecological Correlates of Human Social Behavior 53 3.2.2 How Social Behavior is Adapted to Subsistence Strategies 55 3.2.3 Cultural Phylogenetics 56 3.2.4 Transmission of Traits from Mother to Daughter Cultures 61 3.3 Conclusions 63 References 64 Chapter 4 Our Selections and Decisions: Inherent Features of the Nervous System? 66 4.1 Introduction 66 4.2 Some Thoughts About Selection–Decision Architectures 69 4.3 Switching/Decision/Negotiation Modules 73 4.3.1 Features of Conflict Negotiation Modules 73 4.3.2 Evidence for Conflict-Negotiating Modules 74 4.4 Representation of Decision-Related Intervening Variables 76 4.4.1 BOLD Responses in Humans 77 4.4.2 Single Cell Responses in Animals 79 4.5 Summary and Some Implications 81 4.5.1 Distributed Networks and Complex Interactions 81 4.5.2 Nomothetic vs. Idiographic Descriptions 82 References 85 Chapter 5 Our Gods: Variation in Supernatural Minds 87 5.1 Introduction 87 5.2 Representing Supernatural Minds 88 5.2.1 The Mindreading System and Attributed Domains 88 5.2.2 Supernatural Minds, Variation, and Counterintuitiveness 90 5.3 Variation in Domains of Supernatural Agents’ Knowledge and Concern 94 5.3.1 Omniscience with Heightened Concern: Prosocial Behavior 94 5.3.2 Imperfect Access with Acute Concern: Ritual Behavior 95 5.3.3 Emphases on Faith, Practice, and Social Complexity 97 5.4 Conclusion 99 References 99 Chapter 6 Our Preferences: WhyWe Like What We Like 104 6.1 Darwin’s Problem 105 6.2 Evolutionary Constraints on Aesthetic Perception:The Body as an Evolved Form 107 6.3 The Eight Pillars of Beauty 109 6.4 Alternative Views: Neuroaesthetics 112 6.5 Alternative Views: The Evolutionary Psychology of Ugliness 113 6.6 The Future of the Adapted Mind 114 References 115 Chapter 7 Our Appetite for Information: Invented Environment, Non-Transparent Mind, and Evolved Preferences 118 7.1 Introduction 118 7.2 Old Cognition, New Playgrounds, and the Technological Fallacy 119 7.3 We Don’t Know that We Don’t Know How We Perceive Media 121 7.4 Still the Same Old Cues 124 7.5 Reality and Media: The Boundary that Never Was 126 7.6 The Old Stories Are the Best 127 7.7 Conclusion 129 References 130 Chapter 8 Our Best Shot at Truth: Why Humans Evolved Mathematical Abilities 131 8.1 Introduction 131 8.2 The Mathematical Abilities of Modern Humans 132 8.2.1 Number Sense 132 8.2.2 Number Processing 134 8.2.3 Mathematical Thinking in Terms of Relations 135 8.3 Evolutionary Origins of the Mathematical Abilities of Modern Humans 137 8.3.1 Evolutionary Origins of Number Sense 137 8.3.2 Evolutionary Origins of Number Processing 138 8.3.3 Evolutionary Origins of Mathematical Thinking in Terms of Relations 141 8.4 Discussion: The Mathematical Nature of Modern Humans 144 References 147 Chapter 9 Our Way to Understand the World: Darwin’s Controversial Inheritance 150 9.1 Knowing Instead of Believing: Why the Theory of Evolutionand Traditional Forms of Belief Are Irreconcilable 150 9.2 Errors and Misunderstandings: The Theory of Evolution and the Ghost of Biologism 156 9.3 Huxley’s Synthesis: How Evolutionary Humanism Comes into Darwin’s Inheritance 159 References 163 Index 164 This book brings together leading authors from fields as diverse as primatology, anthropology, neurobiology and philosophy to present essays each describing their own expert perspective of human nature. The result is a reliable and coherent model of man.