Humans have developed the capacity to approve or disapprove of the behavior of their children and of unrelated individuals. The ability to approve or disapprove transformed social learning into a system of cumulative cultural inheritance, because it increased the reliability of cultural transmission. Moreover, people can transmit their behavioral experiences (regarding what can and cannot be done) to their offspring, thereby avoiding the costs of a laborious, and sometimes dangerous, evaluation of different cultural alternatives. Our thesis is that, during ontogeny, (...) the evaluative communication (approval/disapproval) between parents and offspring is substituted by other evaluative communications among peers, like individuals of the same generation. Each person belongs to a reference social group with individuals that interact more intensively. Humans have developed psychological mechanisms that enable cultural transmission by being receptive to parental advice as well as their reference social group. The selective pressure that promoted these new evaluative interactions arose to facilitate the establishment of efficient cooperative relationships. In short, the social control of behavior is essential to understand human cultural transmission. (shrink)

The central idea defended here is that ethical judgements are the product of the adaptive advantage provided by the conceptual capacity to categorise learned behaviour. In the same way that evolution of learning required the presence of value-laden brain structures that guide behaviour in the organism, we propose that the evolution of social learning and the development of human culture required the emergence of a new value system — the 'conceptual capacity to categorise'. This capacity is defined as the ability (...) to categorise one's own behaviour through a conceptual value code — 'favourable/unfavourable' or 'good/bad'. The conceptual capacity to categorise learned behaviour as good or bad was evolutionary successful because it transformed a system of rudimentary cultural transmission based on imitation into a system of efficient and biased cultural heredity based on teaching. Conceptual categorisation allowed the acquisition, through social learning, of adaptive information about behaviour, originating in/from the value-laden brain systems which control learning, without resorting to individual experience. We also suggest that the conceptual capacity to categorise conditioned the evolution of the human intelligence and that the ethical capacity arose as a by-product of both high intelligence and the ability to make evaluations of learned behaviour. (shrink)

This paper presents the hypothesis that linguistic capacity evolved through the action of natural selection as an instrument which increased the efficiency of the cultural transmission system of early hominids. We suggest that during the early stages of hominization, hominid social learning, based on indirect social learning mechanisms and true imitation, came to constitute cumulative cultural transmission based on true imitation and the approval or disapproval of the learned behaviour of offspring. A key factor for this transformation was the development (...) of a conceptual capacity for categorizing learned behaviour in value terms - positive or negative, good or bad. We believe that some hominids developed this capacity for categorizing behaviour, and such an ability allowed them to approve or disapprove of their offsprings- learned behaviour. With such an ability, hominids were favoured, as they could transmit to their offspring all their behavioural experience about what can and cannot be done. This capacity triggered a cultural transmission system similar to the human one, though pre-linguistic. We suggest that the adaptive advantage provided by this new system of social learning generated a selection pressure in favour of the development of a linguistic capacity allowing children to better understand the new kind of evaluative information received from parents. (shrink)

Resumen: Para reconstruir el pasado de Europa, los cronistas medievales debieron recurrir a un cúmulo de textos narrativos de origen griego y romano, atiborrados de elementos de carácter mitológico, dioses y héroes. En el presente artículo exponemos el proceso de evemerismo empleado por esos clérigos cristianos para depurar doctrinalmente la historia antigua. El análisis de las crónicas universales redactadas en el siglo XII muestra la construcción de un discurso narrativo basado en un rico lenguaje compuesto de sustantivos, adjetivos y sus (...) derivados adverbiales, tendiente a desacreditar la veracidad de la mitología clásica.: In order to reconstruct Europe’s past, the medieval chroniclers had to resort to a series of narrative texts of Greek and Roman origin, which were full of mythological elements, gods and heroes. In this paper we present the process of euhemerism used by these Christian clerics to doctrinally purify ancient history. The analysis of the universal chronicles written in the XII century reveals the construction of a narrative discourse based upon a rich language composed of nouns, adjectives and adverbs, with the purpose of discrediting the veracity of classical mythology. (shrink)

According to the dual inheritance theory, cultural learning in our species is a biased and highly efficient process of transmitting cultural traits. Here we define a model of cultural learning where social learning is integrated as a complementary element that facilitates the discovery of a specific behavior by an apprentice, and not as a mechanism that works in opposition to individual learning. In that context, we propose that the emergence of the ability to approve or disapprove of offspring behavior, orienting (...) their learning, transformed primate social learning into a cultural transmission system, like that which characterizes our species. Assessor teaching facilitates the replication and/or reconstruction of behaviors that are difficult to imitate and helps to determine which behaviors should be imitated. We also explore the form in which assessor teaching has conditioned the evolution of our abilities to develop cultures in the hominin line, converting us into individuals equipped with what we call a suadens psychology. Our main point is to defend the hypothesis that suadens psychology determines the stability and dynamics that affect the trajectories of many cultural characters. We compare our proposal with other theories about cultural evolution, specifically with dual inheritance theory and cultural attraction theory. (shrink)

We consider the evolutionary scheme of morality proposed by Tomasello to defend the idea that the ability to orient the learning of offspring using signs of approval/disapproval could be a decisive and necessary step in the evolution of human morality. Those basic forms of intentional evaluative feedback, something we have called assessor teaching, allow parents to transmit their accumulated experience to their children, both about the behaviors that should be learned as well as how they should be copied. The rationale (...) underlying this process is as follows: if a behavior is approved, then it is good; if it is disapproved, then it is bad. The evaluative guidance on how to behave most probably spread among peers in situations of mutual benefit, such as cooperative child rearing. We argue that our hominin ancestors provided with this capacity for assessor teaching were ideally positioned to develop the two specifically human levels of morality proposed by Tomasello: the morality of fairness and the morality of justice. Assessor teaching could have facilitated the genesis of rudimentary codes of behavior tied with the need to agree about how to behave to succeed in joint cooperative activities. Moreover, learning through assessor teaching provides a plausible explanation for the origin of the objectivist and prescriptive dimensions of human morality. First, we emphasize that individuals feel that they evaluate the behavior of others objectively to guide their learning, and, second, we underline the imperative intention that any moral manifestation possesses. (shrink)

Written by pioneers in the field, this practical book presents an authoritative yet accessible overview of the methods and applications of causal inference. The text provides a thorough introduction to the basics of the theory for non-time-varying treatments and the generalization to complex longitudinal data.

This book provides a detailed reconstruction of the process of formation of the modern concept of society as an objective entity from the 1820s onwards, thus helping to better understand the shaping of the modern world and the nature of the current crisis of modernity. The concept has exerted considerable influence over the last two centuries, during which time many people have conceived themselves and behave as members of a society, and social scientists have explained human subjectivities and conducts as (...) social effects. For both groups, society exists as a very real phenomenon. Historical inquiry shows, however, that the modern concept of society is no more than a historically contingent way of imagining and making sense of the human world.. (shrink)

Aus Platons Dialogen geht ein Bild der Philosophie hervor, in dem die persönliche Haltung des Gesprächspartners von grosser Bedeutung ist. Dieses Buch versucht zu zeigen, dass der Gesprächspartner immer wieder dazu ermutigt wird, eine wohlwollende Stellungnahme sowohl gegenüber den am Gespräch beteiligten Personen als auch gegenüber dem Thema der Diskussion einzunehmen, damit ein erfolgreiches Gespräch von Anfang bis Ende durchgeführt werden kann. Diese als Bedingung festgelegte Anforderung wirkt im dialektischen Gespräch selbst und wird bei den Gesprächspartnern aktualisiert. Ihre Wirkung aber (...) geht über ihre eigenen Grenzen hinaus, so dass auch der Leser dazu aufgefordert ist, eine wohlwollende Haltung einzunehmen und sich positiv zum Text zu verhalten. (shrink)

Este libro no es solo una ética para chicas, es también una llamada a los chicos para que se atrevan a transgredir de verdad: para que dejen de ponerse en el lugar de sus deseos y se pongan en el lugar de las demás. La filosofía nos enseña que lo importante son las preguntas que nos hacemos, siempre que formulemos bien nuestros interrogantes y nos preguntemos por el fundamento de nuestros proyectos. La ética, por su parte es una invitación a (...) ponerse en el lugar de los demás, y sucede que hasta ahora los hombres no se han puesto en el lugar de las mujeres. Con ellas ha valido casi todo: desde borrar su nombre y su historia hasta la violencia sexual. La filosofía y, con ella, la ética puede ayudarnos a comprender las enormes contradicciones a las que tienen que enfrentarse las mujeres en un mundo patriarcal al que los filósofos, aun sin haber estado a la altura, sí aportaron una manera de pensar crítica que nos ha llevado a ser conscientes de las desigualdades y a cuestionar el sistema. Ética para Celia nos invita a mirar de frente la realidad, el hecho de que nuestra vida se ha levantado sobre una doble verdad, con normas morales y fines vitales distintos para mujeres y hombres. Esta doble verdad se ha ido transformando, pero no ha desaparecido. A las jóvenes ya no se las socializa con idea de que sean para los demás, pero sí para ser deseables, que no deja de ser otra forma de ser para los otros. (shrink)

Based on research on the increasingly popular unconscious thought effect (UTE), it has been suggested that physicians might make better diagnostic decisions after a period of distraction than after an equivalent amount of time of conscious deliberation. However, published attempts to demonstrate the UTE in medical decision making have yielded inconsistent results. In the present study, we report the results of a meta-analysis of all the available evidence on the UTE in medical decisions made by expert and novice clinicians. The (...) meta-analysis failed to find a significant contribution of unconscious thought to the accuracy of medical decisions. This result cannot be easily attributed to any of the potential moderators of the UTE that have been discussed in the literature. Furthermore, a Bayes Factor analysis shows that most experimental conditions provide positive support for the null hypothesis, suggesting that these null results do not reflect a simple lack of statistical power. We suggest ways in which new studies could usefully provide further evidence on the UTE. Unless future research shows otherwise, the recommendation of using unconscious thought to improve medical decisions lacks empirical support. (shrink)

Abordagens (etno)filosóficas no e do direito -- Criminologia, direito penal e direito internacional humanitário -- Educação em direitos humanos e fundamentais -- Hermanêutica jurídica e sistemas teóricos do conhecimento no direito -- Gênero na transversalidade no direito : epistemologias da marginalização do 'outro' não hegemônico.

My main concern in this article is to arrive at a clear view of the nature, extent, and value of Descartes’ universal doubt, not to determine whether Hume’s critique of Cartesian doubt is compellin...

Higher plants must undergo a major developmental switch, the transition to flowering, if they are to successfully complete their life cycle. In many plants, the crucial decision of when to begin to produce flowers is primarily controlled by environmental signals. The process of floral induction involves the integration of the activities of two types of genes: those that control flowering time as a response to the environment as well as an endogenous clock, and those that determine the floral identity of (...) the cells. The first direct link between these two classes of genes has now been demonstrated(1). Forced expression of CONSTANS, a flowering‐time gene, promotes flowering through the transcriptional activation of LEAFY, a flower‐meristem‐identity gene. (shrink)