Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T04:41:46.401Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Evolutionary mechanisms of teaching

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 June 2015

Peter Gärdenfors
Affiliation:
Cognitive Science, Department of Philosophy, Lund University, 221 00 Lund, Sweden. Peter.Gardenfors@lucs.lu.sehttp://www.fil.lu.se/person/PeterGardenfors Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study, Wallenberg Research Centre at Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch 7600, South Africa.
Anders Högberg
Affiliation:
Archaeology, Department of Cultural Sciences, Linnaeus University, 391 82 Kalmar, Sweden. Anders.Hogberg@lnu.sehttp://lnu.se/employee/anders.hogberg?l=en Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study, Wallenberg Research Centre at Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch 7600, South Africa.

Abstract

We argue that Kline's analysis does not account for the evolutionary mechanisms that can explain the uniqueness of human teaching. We suggest that data should be complemented by an analysis of archaeological material with respect to what forms of teaching are required for the transmission of technologies over generations.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Boesch, C. (1991) Teaching among wild chimpanzees. Animal Behaviour 41(3):530–32.Google Scholar
Gärdenfors, P. (2003) How Homo became sapiens: On the evolution of thinking. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gärdenfors, P. (2007) Evolutionary and developmental aspects of intersubjectivity. In: Consciousness transitions: Phylogenetic, ontogenetic and physiological aspects, ed. Liljenström, H. & Århem, P., pp. 281305. Elsevier.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lombard, M. (2012) Thinking through the Middle Stone Age of sub-Saharan Africa. Quaternary International 270:140–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sterelny, K. (2012) The evolved apprentice. How evolution made humans unique. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Stout, D. (2011) Stone tool making and the evolution of human culture and cognition. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B: Biological Science 366:1050–59.Google Scholar
Wrangham, R. (2009) Catching fire: How cooking made us human. Basic Books.Google Scholar