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WHY SELF-REFLECTION? An Evolutionary Puzzle

RADU J. BOGDAN
Professor of Philosophy and Cognitive Science, Tulane University, New Orleans; University of Bucharest, Director, the Open Mind Master program in cognitive science, University of Bucharest

Tuesday, November 19, 17.00 – 20.00
Amfiteatru Titu Maiorescu, Facultatea de Filosofie
Splaiul Independentei 204

For all we know, a self-reflective mind is not present in any other animal species, including nonhuman primates and possibly archaic humans, and is also absent human children before the age of four to five. All these other species handle their existential challenges very well without self-reflecting. The reasons for and the adaptive value of self-reflection in just one species are neither obvious nor easily explained. To add to the mystery, the evolution of self-reflection, possibly rather recent, possibly rather speedy and in only one species, ours, appears to violate the normally incremental, frugal, tinkering and across-species work of natural selection. So, why did a self-reflective mind evolve, for what reasons and how, out of which mental resources, and why only in modern humans? From some new perspectives, this lecture will venture a few evolutionary answers to these difficult questions.