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What makes humans smart? Social cognition, natural language, and human uniqueness| old_uid | 7200 |
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| title | What makes humans smart? Social cognition, natural language, and human uniqueness |
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| start_date | 2009/06/17 |
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| schedule | 14h-16h |
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| online | no |
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| location_info | salle Paul Lapie |
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| summary | Humans are primates, whose perceptual and action systems strikingly resemble those of other animals, but humans alone develop new systems of knowledge that solve problems unlike any faced by our ancestors. What innate differences between humans and other animals account for the flexibility and productivity of human cognition? According to a recent proposal by Tomasello, the primary characteristic that sets humans on a distinctive developmental path is not cognitive but motivational: humans have an innate propensity to share information, tasks, goals, and emotional states. All humans’ cognitive accomplishments, including the acquisition of natural language, develop from this propensity. I consider Tomasello’s proposal in relation to a rival proposal that inverts it. Like natural number and natural geometry, I suggest, shared intentionality builds on core systems shared by diverse animals: in this case, two distinct systems for representing goal-directed actors and social partners. Uniquely human forms of communication and cooperation arise from our unique capacity to combine these core representations productively. Language, once again, may be the source of this capacity. |
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| responsibles | Lesguillons |
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