Book contents
- Why Me?
- Why Me?
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Framing the Issue
- Part I The Architecture
- Part II The Evolution
- 4 An Evolutionary Paradigm
- 5 Reasons for Self-Reflection
- 6 Scaffolding Self-Reflection
- 7 A Public Sense of Me
- 8 Questions and Answers
- Glossary
- References
- Index
4 - An Evolutionary Paradigm
from Part II - The Evolution
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2021
- Why Me?
- Why Me?
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Framing the Issue
- Part I The Architecture
- Part II The Evolution
- 4 An Evolutionary Paradigm
- 5 Reasons for Self-Reflection
- 6 Scaffolding Self-Reflection
- 7 A Public Sense of Me
- 8 Questions and Answers
- Glossary
- References
- Index
Summary
What could explain the evolution of the architecture of self-reflection, as outlined so far? According to Section 4.1, any such explanation faces a variety of formidable puzzles, such as the human uniqueness of self-reflection, the absence of a specialized DNA basis, the absence of a dedicated brain location, the inward turn of the self-reflective mind, and the apparent recency and speed of its evolution. To handle these puzzles and explain why and how young human minds respond in unprecedented ways to the selection pressures they face in mid-childhood and later, the remaining sections of the chapter assemble an evolutionary paradigm that finds revealing and fruitful explanatory connections among recent and independently elaborated approaches in three distinct research areas – genetics (Section 4.2), brain organization (Section 4.3) and, most importantly, developmental evolution (Section 4.4).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Why Me?The Sociocultural Evolution of a Self-Reflective Mind, pp. 75 - 94Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021