1. Home
  2. Science. The genesis of ideas (vol. 13, 2023)
  3. Castro

The origins of normativity: Assessor teaching and the emergence of norms

Laureano Castro, Miguel A. Toro

Abstract


Norms govern many aspects of human behaviour and facilitate coordination in cooperative activities. Regarding the origin of normativity, the most widely accepted hypothesis holds that it was shaped by processes of cultural selection between human groups with different rules on how to organise social life. However, in our opinion, we still lack an evolutionary explanation that would allow us to trace the origins of this incipient normativity in early humans. In this text we suggest that normativity appeared early in the development of our hominin ancestors as a consequence of the development of elementary teaching skills, understood not only as the ability to show others how to do something, but also as the ability to point out what one may and may not do.

Keywords


learning; assessor teaching; culture; cooperation; normative psychology

Full Text: PDF

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.13.21755

References


Birch, J. (2021). Toolmaking and the evolution of normative cognition. Biology & Philosophy, 36, 4. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-020-09777-9

Brandom, R. (1994). Making it explicit: Reasoning, representing, and discursive commitment. Harvard University Press.

Castro L., Castro-Nogueira, L., Castro-Nogueira, M. A., & Toro, M. A. (2010). Cultural transmission and social control of human behavior. Biology and Philosophy, 25, 347–360. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-010-9201-y

Castro, L., Castro-Nogueira, M. A., Villarroel, M., & Toro, M. A. (2019). The role of assessor teaching in human culture. Biological Theory, 14, 112–121. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-018-00314-2

Castro, L., Castro-Nogueira, M. A., Villarroel, M., & Toro, M. A. (2021). Assessor teaching and the evolution of human morality. Biological Theory, 16, 5–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-020-00362-7

Castro, L., & Toro, M. A. (2004). The evolution of culture: From primate social learning to human culture. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 101, 10235–10240. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0400156101

Chudek, M., & Henrich, J. (2011). Culture-gene coevolution, norm-psychology and the emergence of human prosociality. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15(5), 218–226. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2011.03.003

Henrich, J. (2015). The secret of our success: How culture is driving human evolution, domesticating our species, and making us smarter. Princeton University Press.

Peregrin, J. (2014). Rules as the impetus of cultural evolution. Topoi, 33, 531–545. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-013-9219-2

Premack, D. (2007). Human and animal cognition: Continuity and discontinuity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(35), 13861–13867. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0706147104

Richerson, P. J., & Boyd, R. (2005). Not by genes alone. University of Chicago Press.

Schmidt, M. F., Butler, L. P., Heinz, J., & Tomasello, M. (2016). Young children see a single action and infer a social norm: Promiscuous normativity in 3-year-olds. Psychological Science, 27(10), 1360–1370. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797616661182

Shipton, C., & Nielsen, M. (2018). The acquisition of biface knapping skill in the Acheulean. In L. D. di Paolo, F. di Vincenzo, & F. de Petrillo (Eds.), Evolution of primate social cognition (pp. 283–297). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93776-2_18

Sripada, C. S., & Stich, S. (2007). A framework for the psychology of norms. In P. Carruthers, S. Laurence, & S. Stich (Eds.), The innate mind, Volume 2: Culture and cognition. Oxford University Press.

Tomasello, M. (2014). A natural history of human thinking. Harvard University Press.


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Bookmark and Share