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Instincts or gadgets? Not the debate we should be having
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2019
Abstract
I argue, with examples, that most human cognitive skills are neither instincts nor gadgets but mechanisms shaped both by evolved dispositions and by cultural inputs. This shaping can work either through evolved skills fulfilling their function with the help of cultural skills that they contribute to shape, or through cultural skills recruiting evolved skills and adjusting to them.
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- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019
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Précis of Cognitive Gadgets: The Cultural Evolution of Thinking
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