Machiavellian Intelligence: Social Expertise and the Evolution of Intellect in Monkeys, Apes, and Humans.

Anderson, James R.; Byrne, Richard; Whiten, Andrew

doi:10.2307/2804121

Cited by 39 publications

(43 citation statements)

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“…29 See Tomasello (2014), and more cautiously, Sterelny (2012) for a recent statement of this view. 30 See Cosmides and Tooby (1992), and the papers in Byrne and Whiten (1989). 31 See Hrdy (2009), Sterelny (2012) and Gergely and Csibra (2011).…”

Section: N O T E Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Communication before communicative intentions

Armstrong

2021

Nous

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This paper explores the significance of intelligent social behavior among non-human animals for philosophical theories of communication. Using the alarm call system of vervet monkeys as a case study, I argue that interpersonal communication (or what I call "minded communication") can and does take place in the absence of the production and recognition of communicative intentions. More generally, I argue that evolutionary theory provides good reasons for maintaining that minded communication is both temporally and explanatorily prior to the use of communicative intentions. After developing these negative points about the place of communicative intentions in detail, I provide a novel alternative account according to which minded communication is characterized in terms of patterns of action and response that function to coordinate the representational mental states of agents. I show that an account which centers on patterns of representational coordination of this sort is well suited to capture the theoretical roles associated with minded communication and that it does so in a way that provides a good fit with comparative facts about the presence of minded communication among non-human animals.

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Section: N O T E Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Communication before communicative intentions

Armstrong

2021

Nous

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“…For over 50 years, sociality has been hypothesised as an evolutionary driver of animal cognition 5,6 . However, the focus has been predominantly on interactions occurring within groups.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although initially conceived with humans in mind, Lanchester's laws have been found to operate across a wide range of taxa, from primates 58 to insects 59 . Thus, assessment of the size and ability of rival forces is Within-group social intelligence is the capacity to succeed in within-group interactions (a); it represents the well-established basis of the SIH as currently framed 5,6 . We argue that the capacity to succeed in interactions with conspecific outsiders should be included in the SIH for a more complete representation of the social environment.…”

Section: Cognitive Challenges Arising From Interactions With Conspecimentioning

confidence: 99%

Interactions with conspecific outsiders as drivers of cognitive evolution

2020

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The social intelligence hypothesis (SIH) posits that within-group interactions drive cognitive evolution, but it has received equivocal support. We argue the SIH overlooks a major component of social life: interactions with conspecific outsiders. Competition for vital resources means conspecific outsiders present myriad threats and opportunities in all animal taxa across the social spectrum (from individuals to groups). We detail cognitive challenges generated by conspecific outsiders, arguing these select for ‘Napoleonic’ intelligence; explain potential influences on the SIH; and highlight important considerations when empirically testing these ideas. Including interactions with conspecific outsiders may substantially improve our understanding of cognitive evolution.

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“…Since the ISA theory claims that the mental faculty underlying mental state attribution is largely dependant on such manipulations of sensory information, it seems to cohere with the working memory theory. Finally, the Machiavellian intelligence theory claims that the adaptive challenge of living in a social group was a major driving force in the evolution of intelligence (Byrne, R. W. & Whiten 1988). Since the ISA theory claims that a specialised cognitive system for understanding other minds evolved early and was only later repurposed for understanding one's own mind, it seems to cohere with the Machiavellian intelligence theory.…”

Section: Coherence With Surrounding Theoriesmentioning

confidence: 95%

The Interpretive-Sensory Access Theory of Self-Knowledge: Simplicity and Coherence with Surrounding Theories

Rimkevičius

2019

PRB

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The interpretive-sensory access (ISA) theory of self-knowledge claims that one knows one’s own mind by turning one’s capacity to know other minds onto oneself. Previously, researchers mostly debated whether the theory receives the most support from the results of empirical research. They have given much less attention to the question whether the theory is the simplest of the available alternatives. I argue that the question of simplicity should be considered in light of the well-established theories surrounding the ISA theory. I claim that the ISA theory then proves to be the simplest. I reply to objections to this claim related to recent developments in this area of research: the emergence of a unified transparency theory of self-knowledge and the relative establishment of the predictive processing theory.

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Machiavellian Intelligence: Social Expertise and the Evolution of Intellect in Monkeys, Apes, and Humans.

Cited by 39 publications

References 0 publications

Communication before communicative intentions

Communication before communicative intentions

Interactions with conspecific outsiders as drivers of cognitive evolution

The Interpretive-Sensory Access Theory of Self-Knowledge: Simplicity and Coherence with Surrounding Theories

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