TY - JOUR
T1 - Mind the gap
T2 - a more evolutionarily plausible role for technical reasoning in cumulative technological culture
AU - Pain, Ross
AU - Brown, Rachael L.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, Springer Nature B.V.
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - How do technologies that are too complex for any one individual to produce (“cumulative technological culture”) arise and persist in human populations? Contra prevailing views focusing on social learning, Osiurak and Reynaud (Behav Brain Sci, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x19003236) argue that the primary driver for cumulative technological culture is our ability for technical reasoning. Whilst sympathetic to their overall position, we argue that two specific aspects of their account are implausible: first, that technical reasoning is unique to humans; and second, that technical reasoning is a necessary condition for the production of cumulative technological culture. We then present our own view, which keeps technical reasoning at the forefront but jettisons these conditions. This produces an account of cumulative technological culture that maintains an important role for technical reasoning, whilst being more evolutionarily plausible.
AB - How do technologies that are too complex for any one individual to produce (“cumulative technological culture”) arise and persist in human populations? Contra prevailing views focusing on social learning, Osiurak and Reynaud (Behav Brain Sci, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x19003236) argue that the primary driver for cumulative technological culture is our ability for technical reasoning. Whilst sympathetic to their overall position, we argue that two specific aspects of their account are implausible: first, that technical reasoning is unique to humans; and second, that technical reasoning is a necessary condition for the production of cumulative technological culture. We then present our own view, which keeps technical reasoning at the forefront but jettisons these conditions. This produces an account of cumulative technological culture that maintains an important role for technical reasoning, whilst being more evolutionarily plausible.
KW - Cognitive and cultural evolution
KW - Cognitive archaeology
KW - Comparative psychology
KW - Cumulative technological culture
KW - technical reasoning
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85092584966&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11229-020-02894-8
DO - 10.1007/s11229-020-02894-8
M3 - Article
SN - 0039-7857
VL - 199
SP - 2467
EP - 2489
JO - Synthese
JF - Synthese
IS - 1-2
ER -