scholarly journals On the psychological origins of tool use

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madhur Mangalam ◽  
Dorothy M Fragaszy ◽  
Jeffrey B. Wagman ◽  
Brian Day ◽  
Damian Kelty-Stephen ◽  
...  

The ubiquity of tool use in human life has generated multiple lines of scientific and philosophical investigation to understand the development and expression of humans’ engagement with tools and its relation to other dimensions of human experience. However, existing literature on tool use faces several epistemological challenges in which the same set of questions generate many different answers. At least four critical questions can be identified, which are intimately intertwined—(1) What constitutes tool use? (2) What psychological processes are involved in tool use? (3) Which of these psychological processes are specific to tool use? (4) Which psychological processes involved in tool use are specific to Homo sapiens? To help advance a multidisciplinary scientific understanding of tool use, six author groups representing different academic disciplines (e.g., anthropology, psychology, neuroscience) and different theoretical perspectives respond to each of these questions, and then point to the direction of future work on tool use. We find that while there are marked differences among the responses of the respective author groups to each question, there is a—perhaps surprising—degree of agreement about many essential concepts and questions. We believe that this interdisciplinary and intertheoretical discussion will foster a more comprehensive understanding of tool use than any one of these perspectives (or any one of these author groups) would (or could) on their own.

2006 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
John L. Locke ◽  
Barry Bogin

It has long been claimed that Homo sapiens is the only species that has language, but only recently has it been recognized that humans also have an unusual pattern of growth and development. Social mammals have two stages of pre-adult development: infancy and juvenility. Humans have two additional prolonged and pronounced life history stages: childhood, an interval of four years extending between infancy and the juvenile period that follows, and adolescence, a stage of about eight years that stretches from juvenility to adulthood. We begin by reviewing the primary biological and linguistic changes occurring in each of the four pre-adult ontogenetic stages in human life history. Then we attempt to trace the evolution of childhood and juvenility in our hominin ancestors. We propose that several different forms of selection applied in infancy and childhood; and that, in adolescence, elaborated vocal behaviors played a role in courtship and intrasexual competition, enhancing fitness and ultimately integrating performative and pragmatic skills with linguistic knowledge in a broad faculty of language. A theoretical consequence of our proposal is that fossil evidence of the uniquely human stages may be used, with other findings, to date the emergence of language. If important aspects of language cannot appear until sexual maturity, as we propose, then a second consequence is that the development of language requires the whole of modern human ontogeny. Our life history model thus offers new ways of investigating, and thinking about, the evolution, development, and ultimately the nature of human language.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-123
Author(s):  
M. Ilham Muchtar

The Qur’an formulates al-żanb into several essences, other than as an act which can harm oneself or others. Al-żanb is also used to call sin against God and sin against fellow human beings. Al-żanb means sin, because sin is the result of an act that violates the teachings of religion and will follow the perpetrator until the Day of Judgment. The Qur’an does not mention the term al-żanb except to refer to disgraceful deeds that contain humiliation and backwardness which result in punishment in the judgment day as well as earthly sanctions. The bad influence of al-żanb in human life, both individually and socially, is enormous. Sinful acts, in addition will keep the perpetrators of their fellow human beings and their God, also gave birth to the destruction of nature and the environment. Even the occurrence of disasters on earth is inseparable from the sins committed by humans. A true and comprehensive understanding and comprehension of the nature of al-żanb, in addition to making man careful in every action, he can also learn from his mistakes so as not to make the same mistakes. Moreover, if man realizes that he can at any moment fall into sin, then it will bring a sense of tawadhu in him so that every time he ask forgiveness to Allah without waiting to have to sin first.


2021 ◽  
pp. 114-124
Author(s):  
Татьяна Вячеславовна Кошкина

Показано, что высокий уровень физической подготовленности студентов обеспечит их способность к качественному выполнению будущей трудовой деятельности. Для оценки уровня физической подготовленности студентов в рамках их физического воспитания в вузе возможно использовать нормативы комплекса «Готов к труду и обороне» (ГТО) как универсального оценочного механизма, позволяющего выделять наиболее физически развитых представителей данного поколения. С этой целью определено соответствие уровня физической подготовленности современных студентов не физкультурных специальностей с нормами комплекса ГТО. Выявлены пути совершенствования физической подготовки студентов в условиях современного вуза. Материалом для исследования послужили теоретические и эмпирические данные, полученные на основе использования методов теоретического анализа специальной литературы и передового педагогического опыта, педагогического эксперимента, контрольных испытаний, математико-статистических методов обработки и анализа данных. Результаты исследования подтверждают, что в настоящее время уровень физической подготовленности студентов не всегда соответствует требованиям норм ГТО. Данный факт был доказан экспериментально на базе Марийского государственного университета. Требуется дополнительная работа по физической подготовке студентов. С этой целью сформулированы методические рекомендации по совершенствованию физической подготовки студентов в соответствии с нормами ГТО. Теоретически обоснована и эмпирически доказана целесообразность использования нормативов ГТО в качестве системы оценивания физической подготовленности студентов. Сформулированы методические рекомендации по повышению уровня физической подготовленности студентов в соответствии с нормативами комплекса ГТО. The importance of physical culture and sports in human life, associated with maintaining the health of the nation as a whole and ensuring individual health and working capacity of the individual in particular, is realized in the form of physical education carried out in educational institutions, including universities. A high level of physical fitness of students will ensure their ability to perform high-quality future work activities. In order to assess the level of physical fitness of students within the framework of their physical education at the university, it is possible to use the standards of the GTO complex as a universal evaluation mechanism that allows identifying the most physically developed representatives of this generation. The purpose is to determine the compliance of the level of physical fitness of modern students of non-physical education specialties with the norms of the GTO complex and to identify on this basis ways to improve the physical training of students in the conditions of a modern university. The materials for the study were theoretical and empirical data obtained on the basis of the use of methods of theoretical analysis of special literature and advanced pedagogical experience, pedagogical experiment, control tests, mathematical and statistical methods of data processing and analysis. When studying the advanced pedagogical experience accumulated in our country since the introduction of the revived GTO standards in 2014, reflected in relevant publications, as well as scientific and methodological literature in the field of physical education, it was shown that at present the level of physical fitness of students does not always meet the requirements of GTO standards. This fact was proved experimentally, by conducting control tests on the basis of the Mari State University. This indicated that additional work is required on the physical training of students, and those indicators of physical fitness of students that require the greatest development were also identified. Methodological recommendations were formulated to improve the physical training of students in accordance with the standards of the GTO. The expediency of using the GTO standards as a system for assessing students’ physical fitness was theoretically justified and empirically proved.


Author(s):  
Chris Gosden

‘The long-term history of Europe and Asia’ explains how the fluctuating climatic systems between cold and warm periods provided the context in which the global expansion of our ancestors occurred. It discusses the mammoth steppe ecosystem, the relationships between plants and animals, and the introduction of tool use, language, and farming systems across Europe and east Asia. The last great global warming—shifting vegetation zones, the territories of animals, and sea levels—was one of the most challenging periods in planetary history since the evolution of Homo sapiens. Yet from this period came a mass of novel technologies, skills, and relationships that provided the basis for life.


2006 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 288-289
Author(s):  
Peter Kappeler

The proposition that selective advantages of linguistic skills have contributed to shifts in ontogenetic landmarks of human life histories in early Homo sapiens is weakened by neglecting alternative mechanisms of life history evolution. Moreover, arguments about biological continuity through sweeping comparisons with nonhuman primates do not support various assumptions of this scenario.


2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 686-697
Author(s):  
DAVID R. LAWRENCE

Abstract:This article aims to explore the idea that enhancement technologies have been and will continue to be an essential element of what we might call the “human continuum,” and are indeed key to our existence and evolution into persons. Whereas conservative commentators argue that enhancement is likely to cause us to lose our humanity and become something other, it is argued here that the very opposite is true: that enhancement is the core of what and who we are. Using evidence from paleoanthropology to examine the nature of our predecessor species, and their proclivities for tool use, we can see that there is good reason to assume that the development of Homo sapiens is a direct result of the use of enhancement technologies. A case is also made for broad understandings of the scope of enhancement, based on the significant evolutionary results of acts that are usually dismissed as “unremarkable.” Furthermore, the use of enhancement by modern humans is no different than these prehistoric applications, and is likely to ultimately have similar results. There is no good reason to assume that whatever we may become will not also consider itself human.


2016 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 128-144
Author(s):  
Timothy M Gill

In recent decades, several sociologists have moved beyond grand theories of international relations, and empirically examined the motivations of US foreign policy leading into the 21st century. This article discusses the work of three political sociologists who have examined US foreign policy from three prominent perspectives: Michael Mann, William Robinson, and Julian Go. Working from a neo-Weberian perspective, Mann highlights the rise of neoconservatism within the US government that has encouraged foreign expansion. From a neo-Marxist perspective, Robinson emphasizes the importance of transnational capitalist class interests, including the promotion of neoliberal policies, on US foreign policy. And working from a world-systems perspective, Go underscores how the US is a hegemon in decline attempting to regain its imperial footing through military aggression. While these researchers cover much ground and raise important questions, their perspectives also contain several blindspots that future work on issues of US foreign policy could address. Most importantly, these three theoretical perspectives have neglected the importance of ideology in making sense of contemporary US foreign policy, and this article argues that future work should more intensively examine how ideology influences foreign policymaking in the US.


2012 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 232-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Nielsen

AbstractHuman life history incorporates childhood, a lengthy post-weaning period of dependency. This species-specific period provides an opportunity for extensive learning and for sophisticated cultural behaviors to develop, including crucial tool use skills. Although I agree that no individual cognitive trait singularly differentiates humans from other animals, I suggest here that without childhood, the traits that are key to human tool use would not emerge.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document