Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas

225 | Michael Tomasello on The Social Origins of Cognition and Agency

Jan 30, 2023

Michael Tomasello, a prominent researcher in human cognition and social origins, explores the fascinating evolution of agency and morality. He discusses how our cognitive abilities developed through social pressures, emphasizing the importance of cooperation and communication. The conversation touches on cognitive parallels with great apes, the emergence of language from gestures, and the complex roots of morality influenced by altruism. Tomasello also delves into the significance of 'theory of mind' and how interdependence shapes our social behaviors.

01:22:00

Episode guests

Michael Tomasello

Highlights

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Free Will and Squirrel Cognition

01:20

Perspective Shapes Understanding

01:31

Intelligent Traffic Lights and Homeostasis in the Body

01:26

Morality as Mutual Benefit

01:39

Intro

4min

Cognitive Parallels: Humans and Great Apes

14min

The Evolutionary Journey from Hominins to Homo Sapiens

3min

Exploring the Evolution of Theory of Mind and Social Coordination

6min

The Evolution of Communication: From Gestures to Language

4min

Innate Language Capacity: A Critical Examination

13min

Evolutionary Roots of Morality

12min

Exploring Agency and Time Travel in Evolution

27min

Human beings have developed wondrous capacities to take in information about the world, mull it over, think about a suite of future implications, and decide on a course of action based on those deliberations. These abilities developed over evolutionary history for a variety of reasons and under a number of different pressures. But one crucially important aspect of their development is their social function. According to Michael Tomasello, we developed agency and cognition and even morality in order to better communicate and cooperate with our fellow humans.

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Michael Tomasello received a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the University of Georgia. He is currently the James Bonk Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience and Director of the Developmental Psychology Program at Duke University. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Among his awards are the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association, the Wiley Prize in Psychology, and the Heineken Prize for Cognitive Science. His newest book is The Evolution of Agency: Behavioral Organization from Lizards to Humans.

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