Humans As Ultra-Cooperative Great Apes

Speaker
Michael Tomasello
Event date
Event time
17:45
Venue
Oxford University Museum of Natural History
Parks Road
Oxford
OX1 3PW
Venue details

Lecture Theatre

Event type
Lectures and seminars
Event cost
Free
Disabled access?
Yes
Booking required
Required

Unique among mammals, great apes have evolved to be rational agents: (i) they metacognitively monitor their decision making and correct themselves or gather new information as needed; (ii) they understand why things happen in terms of the causal structure of the physical world and the intentional structure of the social world. Building on this foundation, humans have evolved in addition species-unique skills and motivations for collaboration and cultural life – shared agency and intentionality - which have made possible almost all of their most distinctive cognitive and cultural achievements.