The Innate Mind: Volume 2: Culture and Cognition

by Peter Carruthers (Editor), Stephen Laurence (Editor), Stephen Stich (Editor)

Overview

This is the second volume of a projected three-volume set on the subject of innateness. The volume is highly interdisciplinary, and addresses such question as: To what extent are mature cognitive capacities a reflection of particular cultures and to what extent are they a product of innate elements? How do innate elements interact with culture to achieve mature cognitive capacities? How do minds generate and shape cultures? How are cultures processed by minds? The volume will be of great importance to anyone interested in the interplay between culture and the innate mind.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198042365
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	01/11/2007
Series:	Evolution and Cognition
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Peter Carruthers is Professor and Chair in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Maryland. Stephen Laurence is Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Director of the Hang Seng Center for Cognitive Studies at University of Sheffield. Stephen Stich is Board of Governors Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Center for Cognitive Science, Rutgers University.

Table of Contents

Contributors     ix
Introduction: Culture and the Innate Mind   Tom Simpson   Stephen Stich   Peter Carruthers   Stephen Laurence     3
Learning, Culture, and Evolution
Culture, Adaptation, and Innateness   Robert Boyd   Peter J. Richerson     23
About 17 (+/- 2) Potential Principles about Links between the Innate Mind and Culture: Preadaptation, Predispositions, Preferences, Pathways, and Domains   Paul Rozin     39
Steps toward an Evolutionary Psychology of a Culture-Dependent Species   Daniel M. T. Fessler     61
Human Groups as Adaptive Units: Toward a Permanent Consensus   David Sloan Wilson     78
The Baldwin Effect and Genetic Assimilation: Contrasting Explanatory Foci and Gene Concepts in Two Approaches to an Evolutionary Process   Paul E. Griffiths     91
The Baldwin Effect and Genetic Assimilation: Reply to Griffiths   David Papineau     102
Mental Number Lines   Marcus Giaquinto     112
Modularity and Cognitive Architecture
Modularity in Language and Theory of Mind: What Is the Evidence?   Michael Siegal   Luca Surian     133
Culture and Modularity   Dan Sperber   Lawrence Hirschfeld     149
Shaping Social Environments with SimpleRecognition Heuristics   Peter M. Todd   Annerieke Heuvelink     165
Simple Heuristics Meet Massive Modularity   Peter Carruthers     181
Modularity and Design Reincarnation   H. Clark Barrett     199
Cognitive Load and Human Decision, or, Three Ways of Rolling the Rock Uphill   Kim Sterelny     218
Morality, Norms, and Religion
How Good Is the Linguistic Analogy?   Susan Dwyer     237
Is Human Morality Innate?   Richard Joyce     257
A Framework for the Psychology of Norms   Chandra Sekhar Sripada   Stephen Stich     280
Religion's Innate Origins and Evolutionary Background   Scott Atran     302
References     319
Index     351

Editorial Reviews

"If you are impressed by our species' cross-cultural variation, but mystified by how it emerges, then read this book. If you are unimpressed by our cross-cultural variation, but moved by our universality, then read this book. You will learn that of all the species that have existed on earth, we are truly bizarre, at once both clones of each other and yet remarkably different."—Marc Hauser, Harvard College Professor of Psychology and Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, and author of Wild Minds and Moral Minds.

"Carruthers, Laurence, and Stich have done it again! The second book in their Innate Mind series is as much a must have as the first. Most of the big names in evolutionary psychology and cultural evolution are represented here, talking sensibly and informatively about how culture informs and shapes the innate mind, and vice versa. Both meta-level and object-level issues are dealt with. How should the relation between culture and the genetically shaped mind be conceived? Is the innate mind modular? How does our manifest and massive enculturation influence the evolution of our minds, and how do the minds we have inherited from our hominid ancestors shape our mental, social, moral, and religious practices? This book is not a survey; it is a collection of cutting-edge research papers, which should stimulate professionals and students alike."—Fiona Cowie, author of What's Within

"This is a fantastic volume. It beautifully answers the tired complaint that we need to get beyond the simple nature/nurture dichotomy. This collection of essays represents a striking advance in our understanding of both nativism and culture. It also provides the basis for a bright future in charting how innate and cultural components interact. Together with the other Innate Mind volumes assembled by this team, this volume represents a real landmark in the development of nativism."—Shaun Nichols, University of Arizona, and author of Sentimental Rules and co-author of Mindreading.

From the Publisher