The Two Mind Hypothesis
Simplifies an understanding of bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, language, religion, self-awareness, free will, and the experience of being human for the last three million years.
Simplifies an understanding of bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, language, religion, self-awareness, free will, and the experience of being human for the last three million years.
How much more majesty there is in the vision that the unique aspect of our nature is animated not by tooth and claw, but rather by our tribe’s ancient mission to transform the power of aggression into the bounty of communion.
Psychologist Michael Tomasello recognizes that, because all the minds of our ancestral species have gone extinct, the only way we can scientifically approach how the mind of apes evolved into our own is to comparatively study the minds of apes and developing children to ascertain what is exclusively human in human nature. In Becoming Human: …
Second in a series: Click for first or third It is not generally understood that there is virtually no scientific knowledge about how the mind of apes evolved into our own mind. Huge amounts of scientific knowledge about the minds of apes and humans (particularly children) are neatly being stacked upon the cliffs on either …
If you are a progressive, perhaps you identify yourself as a Darwinist in relation to the religious right who deny evolution, but you are probably unaware that you are embracing a dark view of human nature—and one that is at the foundation of modern conservatism. In Darwin’s Autobiography (1887), he reports, In October 1838, that …
Although there are limitations on how much can be known scientifically about the evolution of emotional experience through deep time, other methods of knowing can penetrate the origin of our emotions and thus reveal the core of human nature.
Linguist Steven Levinson criticizes evolutionary psychologist Michael Tomasello and linguist Derik Bickerson for being unable to shake loose of the “cold” abstract cognitive prerequisites rather than the “hot” motivational and interactive instincts that lie behind the universal patterns of multimodal communication.
The mystery and complexity of many aspects of human language can be simplified by considering the emotional dynamics that underlies it.