LIN Spring Plenary Lecture: “The social minds of humans and other apes” by Christopher Krupenye (Johns Hopkins University)
February 11, 2025
9:30 AM - 10:00 AM
Location
SCE 301
Calendar
Download iCal FilePlease join us Feb. 11th at 9:30am for the LIN Spring Plenary Lecture. This event will feature "The social minds of humans and other apes" by Dr. Christopher Krupenye (Johns Hopkins University)
Host: Angie Salles
Abstract: The social world is dynamic and awash with uncertainty and yet our minds are mind are equipped with a number of cognitive abilities that render it more predictable. What sorts of cognitive representations do we generate to parse the social world, adeptly track social information, predict others’ behavior, and make strategic decisions? Are humans unique in these capacities? Our closest relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos, provide a powerful opportunity to investigate how minds very similar to our own (and to our common evolutionary ancestors) represent and navigate the world—in the absence of patterning by human culture and language. Through comparisons between humans and other apes, I explore the foundational cognitive mechanisms, and underlying representations, that shape human social life. In doing so, I also spotlight those components that uniquely define our species. This approach helps elucidate the cognitive underpinnings and evolutionary origins of human sociality, ranging from politics to morality. At the same time, it bears on broader questions that unite the cognitive sciences, concerning the origins of knowledge and the functioning of the human mind.
Date posted
Dec 12, 2024
Date updated
Jan 7, 2025