Evolutionary Cognition

Aim

On completion of the course, the student should be able to:

• give an account of the most important concepts and the perspectives that are used in the study of cognition from an evolutionary perspective
• portray central research results in the area,
• explain how these theories are linked to basic conceptions of the human cognition as at least partly a product of evolutionary factors
• account for how such a perspective may have relevance for other disciplines within the cognitive science field, such as philosophy, linguistics, psychology and neuroscience.
• critically discuss how alleged natural phenomena concerning race and gender may have been based on evolutionary explanations.

Content

The course covers cognition from an evolutionary perspective where we assume that the natural cognitive systems (for example human cognition) we see around us today are the result of an evolutionary development. A follow-up question will be what consequences this has for our understanding of cognition.

The course includes a review of the theory of evolution and what relevance an evolutionary perspective may have for the understanding of human cognition. The content includes the cognition of other species as well as questions about the animals' cognitive abilities (and inability). Furthermore, a comparative perspective is taken on human cognition, which means that, for example, anthropological and archaeological results will be covered. The question of whether the evolutionary perspective has any direct relevance to different philosophical theories of consciousness will also be addressed.