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#689 Michael Tomasello - The Evolution of Agency: Behavioral Organization from Lizards to Humans

The Dissenter

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Squirrels Are Intentional Agents

A key is when you have a level of executive control. Squirrels start to look at one thing and say, should I do this? Should I do that? These are mammals in general, I would say. And they are imagining what would happen if I did this? What would happened if I did that? So these executive tier arises in evolution. The goal directed one is to make things happen in the world that meet your goals; the executivetier facilitates behavioral decision making.

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