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Distinctively human motivation and another view on human evolution

Prudkov, Pavel N. (2006) Distinctively human motivation and another view on human evolution. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

Human evolution is a multidisciplinary problem, one of its aspects is the origin and development of distinctively human psychological features. Cognitive properties (language, symbolic thinking) are considered as such features and numerous authors hypothesize its evolution. We suggest that the most important human characteristic is connected with motivation rather than cognition; this is the ability to construct and maintain long-term goal-directed processes having no biological basis. Once emerged, this new ability determined evolution. Human language arose from the need to subserve group activities directed at achieving long-term goals. Abstract thinking resulted from the extraction of nonperceptual features through the regular and purposive usage of various objects. The comparison of this hypothesis against other evolutionary models is discussed.

Item Type:Other
Keywords:evolution, social, motivation, language, symbolic thinking
Subjects:Biology > Evolution
ID Code:1171
Deposited By:Prudkov, Pavel N.
Deposited On:29 Apr 2006
Last Modified:12 Sep 2007 17:36

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