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

The Dissenter

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The Theory of Action Based on Mental Constructs

Do we know if prior agents in evolutionary history have any understanding of agents or do they attribute any sort of agency to what are conspecifics? Well, I mean, there are these studies with birds, right? The Corvids and the scrub jays and stuff, but they're off the line to humans. So it's clearest for great apes, that they understand that others' action is driven by their pursuit of a goal... And whether some other creatures can do that or not, I would say the best other evidence is Reese's monkeys.

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