Alignments across disciplines
By Ira Noveck & Tiffany Morisseau (This post forms part of our “book club” discussing Thom Scott-Phillip’s latest book with its author. This précis introduced the discussion.) This book …
Tag: featured
Combinatoriality and codes
I read this book as part of an interdisciplinary reading group at Cardiff. As we found, there’s a lot to agree with in the book, but the commentary…
No communication without reputation, no reputation without communication
(This post forms part of our “book club” discussing Thom Scott-Phillip’s latest book with its author. This précis introduced the discussion.) I chose to organise an ICCI book club around…
Cultural attraction, “standard” cultural evolution, and language
(This post forms part of our “book club” discussing Thom Scott-Phillip’s latest book with its author. This précis introduced the discussion.)Speaking Our Minds (SOM) was a great pleasure to …
Key notions in the study of communication
(This post forms part of our “book club” discussing Thom Scott-Phillip’s latest book with its author. This précis introduced the discussion.) I am enthusiastic about Thom Scott-Phillips’ bo…
A few comments on ‘Speaking Our Minds’
By Paulo Sousa and Karolina Prochownik We would like first to thank the ICCI team for the invitation to participate in the book club around Thom Scott-Phillips’ Speaking…
Why do children but not apes acquire language?
(This post forms part of our “book club” discussing Thom Scott-Phillip’s latest book with its author. This précis introduced the discussion.) In his introduction to Thom Scott-Phillips’s Spea…
‘Speaking Our Minds’ Book Club: A précis of the book by Thom Scott-Phillips
We are thrilled to open our second book club, devoted to Thom Scott-Phillips’ book, Speaking Our Minds: Why human communication is different, and how language evolved to make it…
Mind-Body Dualism as Applied to Supernatural Agents: The (Dead) Emperor’s New Mind or Chicken Little?
I recently had an animated discussion with one of my colleagues about the wide spread application of mind-body dualism and its many variants in the cognitive science and…
An evolutionary framework for the study of teaching
A new article or obvious cognition-and-culture relevance by Michelle Ann Kline on “How to learn about teaching: An evolutionary framework for the study of teaching behavior in humans and…
Social Norms and Cultural Dynamics
A Special Issue on “Social Norms and Cultural Dynamics” of Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (Volume 129, July 2015) Edited by Michael Morris, Ying-yi Hong and Chi-Yue Chi…
Social Anthropology meets “the cognitive challenge”
Social Anthropology devotes an exciting special issue to “taking up the cognitive challenge”, edited by Rita Astuti and Denis Regnier, with contributions by (among others) Tamara Hale, Charles…
Budapest Conference on Cognitive Development
The Cognitive Development Center at the Central European University is pleased to announce the fifth annual Budapest CEU Conference on Cognitive Development in Budapest, Hungary (J…
“Falling Up” – Genre-busting Digital Ethnography
Every spring my Digital Ethnography students move into the Meadowlark Hills Continuing Care Retirement Community and immerse themselves in the lives and memories of their new neighbors. This…
Sign language as a window into universally accessible linguistic biases
A very interesting new article: “Event representations constrain the structure of language: Sign language as a window into universally accessible linguistic biases” by Brent Strickland, Carl…
Scott Atran’s address to the UN security council
It is not everyday that an anthropologist is asked to speak before the security council: Scott Atran did, on the 23d of April. See video here.
Astuti and Bloch on “Incest, intentionality, and morality”
A thought-provoking article by Rita Astuti and Maurice Bloch, “The causal cognition of wrong doing: incest, intentionality and morality,” in Frontiers in Psychology, 18 February 2015. From the…
Should preferences based on authoritarianism and social dominance be treated as moral?
An interesting critical discussion of Jonathan Haidt’s apprach to morality from a social psychology and political science point of view: “Another Look at Moral Foundations Theory: Do Authori…
Why reading minds is not like reading words
Written by Brent Strickland and Pierre Jacob In a recent review paper in Science (2014. 344-6190) entitled “The cultural evolution of mind reading,” Cecilia Heyes and Chris Frith argue…
Culture: A scientific idea “ready for retirement”?
Every year the website edge.org asks their panel a general question on science and/or society. The 2014 question was: “What scientific idea is ready for retirement?“ I did not read…
What Explains the Emergence of Moralizing Religions?
An ambitious article: “Increased Affluence Explains the Emergence of Ascetic Wisdoms and Moralizing Religions”, by Nicolas Baumard, Alexandre Hyafil, Ian Morris, and Pascal Bo…
A Cognitive Science of Theology?
A new, interesting, and original book by Helen De Cruz and Johan De Smedt: A Natural History of Natural Theology: The Cognitive Science of Theology and Philosophy of Religion. MIT…
Applications for PhD studentships in Cognitive Science at CEU, Budapest
PhD studentships are available for the doctoral program in Cognitive Science at Central European University (CEU), Budapest, Hungary. Application deadline: February 1, 2015. The Department of Cogn…
Is probabilistic cognition universal?
An interesting paper by Laura Fontanari, Michel Gonzalez, Giorgio Vallortigara, and Vittorio Girotto: “Probabilistic cognition in two indigenous Mayan groups“, forthcoming in PNAS….