Evolution and the Human Mind: Modularity, Language and Meta-Cognition

Description

How did our minds evolve? Can evolutionary considerations illuminate the question of the basic architecture of the human mind? These are two of the main questions addressed in Evolution and the Human Mind by a distinguished interdisciplinary team of philosophers, psychologists, anthropologists and archaeologists. The essays focus especially on issues to do with modularity of mind, the evolution and significance of natural language, and the evolution of our capacity for meta-cognition (thought about thought), together with its implications for consciousness. The editors have provided an introduction that lays out the background to the questions which the essays address, and a consolidated bibliography that will be a valuable reference resource for all those interested in this area. The volume will be of great interest to all researchers and students interested in the evolution and nature of the mind.

'... it is the combination of its desire to pull together scholars from different disciplines and the calibre of the individual papers, often heavily interdisciplinary themselves, which deems the book a success.' Cambridge Archaeological Journal '... would recommend this book to anyone interested in the nature and evolution of human mind and language ...' JRAI