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Shared intentionality, reason-giving and the evolution of human culture.

Publication ,  Journal Article
O'Madagain, C; Tomasello, M
Published in: Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
January 2022

The biological approach to culture focuses almost exclusively on processes of social learning, to the neglect of processes of cultural coordination including joint action and shared intentionality. In this paper, we argue that the distinctive features of human culture derive from humans' unique skills and motivations for coordinating with one another around different types of action and information. As different levels of these skills of 'shared intentionality' emerged over the last several hundred thousand years, human culture became characterized first by such things as collaborative activities and pedagogy based on cooperative communication, and then by such things as collaborative innovations and normatively structured pedagogy. As a kind of capstone of this trajectory, humans began to coordinate not just on joint actions and shared beliefs, but on the reasons for what we believe or how we act. Coordinating on reasons powered the kinds of extremely rapid innovation and stable cumulative cultural evolution especially characteristic of the human species in the last several tens of thousands of years. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'The emergence of collective knowledge and cumulative culture in animals, humans and machines'.

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Published In

Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences

DOI

EISSN

1471-2970

ISSN

0962-8436

Publication Date

January 2022

Volume

377

Issue

1843

Start / End Page

20200320

Related Subject Headings

  • Knowledge
  • Humans
  • Hominidae
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Culture
  • Cultural Evolution
  • Cooperative Behavior
  • Communication
  • Animals
  • 32 Biomedical and clinical sciences
 

Citation

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O’Madagain, C., & Tomasello, M. (2022). Shared intentionality, reason-giving and the evolution of human culture. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 377(1843), 20200320. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0320
O’Madagain, Cathal, and Michael Tomasello. “Shared intentionality, reason-giving and the evolution of human culture.Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences 377, no. 1843 (January 2022): 20200320. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0320.
O’Madagain C, Tomasello M. Shared intentionality, reason-giving and the evolution of human culture. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B, Biological sciences. 2022 Jan;377(1843):20200320.
O’Madagain, Cathal, and Michael Tomasello. “Shared intentionality, reason-giving and the evolution of human culture.Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, vol. 377, no. 1843, Jan. 2022, p. 20200320. Epmc, doi:10.1098/rstb.2020.0320.
O’Madagain C, Tomasello M. Shared intentionality, reason-giving and the evolution of human culture. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B, Biological sciences. 2022 Jan;377(1843):20200320.
Journal cover image

Published In

Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences

DOI

EISSN

1471-2970

ISSN

0962-8436

Publication Date

January 2022

Volume

377

Issue

1843

Start / End Page

20200320

Related Subject Headings

  • Knowledge
  • Humans
  • Hominidae
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Culture
  • Cultural Evolution
  • Cooperative Behavior
  • Communication
  • Animals
  • 32 Biomedical and clinical sciences