What makes a person so special? How could he alone among all primates give birth to the knowledge, tools, and ideas that have been passed down over the centuries? “Six million years separate humans from other great ape species.notes Michael Tomasello, a cognitive psychologist and professor at Duke University (Durham, North Carolina). From an evolutionary point of view, this is a very short time. (…) It is clear that not much has passed (of time) so that the normal processes of biological evolution, mixing genetic variation and natural selection, can one by one create the cognitive skills that are needed the man to invent and perpetuate industrial tools and complex technologies, highly elaborate forms of communication and symbolic representation, and social organizations and complex institutions.
In a sometimes difficult but fascinating job, a psychologist…
Source: Le Figaro
