Thinking from an evolutionary perspective
Thinking from an evolutionary perspective
Since the inception of the scientific theory of evolution of Charles Darwin in 1859, another question arises — how are humans different from their distant cousins the chimpanzee and bonobo? The difference of course lies in our ability to think and to communicate through systematic sets of codes. This chapter discusses the complexity of human thinking — the components of thinking and how this process has evolved. Thinking is the most central feature of consciousness. Thinking is a complex combination of sensation, attention, emotion, memory (procedural, semantic, and episodic), thought and imagination, planning, self-consciousness, free will, and language. The four sources of empirical support cited in this study are: phylogeny, neurophysiology, ontogeny, and archaeology (and anthropology). It also discusses the four-step model for the development of consciousness. Lastly, this chapter discusses how thinking is related to the behaviourist approach of Frederic Skinner.
Keywords: Charles Darwin, communication, consciousness, memory, free will, phylogeny, neurophysiology, ontogeny, archaeology, Frederic Skinner
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
