How our ability to learn from each other has been the essential
ingredient to our remarkable success as a species
Human beings are a very different kind of animal. We have evolved to
become the most dominant species on Earth. We have a larger geographical
range and process more energy than any other creature alive. This
astonishing transformation is usually explained in terms of cognitive
ability--people are just smarter than all the rest. But in this
compelling book, Robert Boyd argues that culture--our ability to learn
from each other--has been the essential ingredient of our remarkable
success.
A Different Kind of Animal demonstrates that while people are smart,
we are not nearly smart enough to have solved the vast array of problems
that confronted our species as it spread across the globe. Over the past
two million years, culture has evolved to enable human populations to
accumulate superb local adaptations that no individual could ever have
invented on their own. It has also made possible the evolution of social
norms that allow humans to make common cause with large groups of
unrelated individuals, a kind of society not seen anywhere else in
nature. This unique combination of cultural adaptation and large-scale
cooperation has transformed our species and assured our survival--making
us the different kind of animal we are today.
Based on the Tanner Lectures delivered at Princeton University, A
Different Kind of Animal features challenging responses by biologist H.
Allen Orr, philosopher Kim Sterelny, economist Paul Seabright, and
evolutionary anthropologist Ruth Mace, as well as an introduction by
Stephen Macedo.
