Evolving Self-Awareness
EVELYNE STALZER (evelyne.stalzer@cencore.com)
Tue, 05 Sep 95 13:47:00 -0300
Mike Reid (mreid@thomtech.com) wrote:
MR> As far as becoming "self-aware," this is as difficult to
MR> determine as it is to define. Thought processes are not
MR> preserved in the fossil record.
This is true. But aren't there at least some indications in the
fossil record that can provide evidence for self-awareness? Two
candidates come to mind--burial customs and artwork.
MR> We know that a likely ancestor, Homo habilis, had a large brain
MR> and was making primitive tools more than 2 million years ago,
MR> perhaps long before then.
The difficulty I have with using tool-making as an indicator of
self-awareness is that it is different more in degree than in kind
from the behavior of other animals. Admittedly, that difference in
degree is pretty substantial between a culturally transmitted school
of stone tool making among humans and an opportunistic use of sticks
to collect termites among chimps.
On the other hand, no animals as far as I know practice
representational or abstract art, nor have they developed elaborate
burial customs. (And if I'm wrong, I'm sure the people here will
let me know about it!)
Evelyne Stalzer
evelyne.stalzer@cencore.com
* RM 1.3 01313 * The living dead don't need to do word problems.
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