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 Review - HumanThe Science Behind What Makes Us Unique by Michael S. Gazzaniga Ecco, 2008 Review by Renia Gasparatou, Ph.D. Sep 23rd 2008 (Volume 12, Issue 39) Would you rather date a human or a chimp? Are there such differences between our species and our closest cousins that would justify your preference for the company of humans? According to M.S. Gazzaniga, for hundreds of years now scientists have either argued for the uniqueness of being human or against it, searching for antecedents of any human characteristics in other animals. Human aims to describe what makes our species unique, without neither exaggerating nor minimizing similarities and differences between humans and other species. After all, such differences can explain why most of us choose to date other homines sapientes. Gazzaniga starts with the "basics": Are human brains unique? He argues against the thesis that what makes human brain exceptional has solely to do with the brain's relative size (the analogy between brain size and body size). Instead, he appeals to studies that suggest that our abilities are also related to the structure of the human brain. The first chapter outlines scientific work on the organization of the human brain and overviews physical and mental similarities and dissimilarities between humans and other hominines. According to his analysis of the studies reviewed, humans are the only ones proved to have a wide-ranging Theory of Mind, a theory so generous that allows humans to project intent to other animals or even inanimate things: to say, for example, that our dog is sad or that our doll is being jealous. Among the features discussed in this section, the topic of communication and language stands up. Gazzaniga refers to the work of R.Provine and explains how bipedalism probably made speech mechanism possible. He also reviews many experimental attempts to teach chimps, bonobos and gorillas to communicate using language (roughly, symbols and grammar). He puts forward some serious methodological problems underlying those experiments: How to define language is right on the top of the list but also problems of interpreting animal behavior. On Gazzaniga's reading those attempts had rather disappointing results and suggest that only humans can enjoy in full-blown linguistic activity. So far so good. Yet, it is at this point that Gazzaniga places his cards on the table. He takes for granted and develops an adaptationist theory concerning our mental life: E.O. Wilson, R. Dawkins, L. Cosmides, among others, are quoted and a strong version Sociobiology's latest offspring is implied: Evolutionary Psychology. According to this theory, evolved micro- mechanisms (modules) are taken in as the causes of human behavior. Those modules are something like specific-purpose-micro-computers, which arose by natural selection during the Pleistocene and have being helping the species to survive (that is, to procreate). In the remaining chapters, human sociability, the ability to deceive and to recognize deception, gossiping, creating music and arts, human morality, or even the human habit of acting like a dualist (i.e. "translating" physical language about genes and hormones to mental language of desires and beliefs) that is, pretty much all human behavior is explained as caused by such modules that are responsible for our species' reproduction. Such a view suggests that a universal human nature with universal human psychological characteristics arose by genetic variation and has been more or less fixed by natural selection. This is Darwinism at its extreme. Darwinism is a well-respected theory when applied to explain physical characteristics of the species. Or even when claiming some evolutionary origins of our behavior can help understand the human condition. It is a highly disputed dogma, though, when emphasizing a causal relation between evolved bio-micro-mechanisms and all human behavior. The Modular Theory of Mind, Sociobiology and strong versions of Evolutionary Psychology and their methodology are in the center of long disputes by both scientists (e.g. S.J. Gould, R. Lewontin) and philosophers (e.g. P. Kitcher, D.J. Butler, J. Fodor). Here I will only sketch parts of this criticism. Human emphasizes the universality of human nature and behavior. Yet, the claim that there is such a universally human mental essence is dubious. For example, according to Gazzaniga, morality is universal in humans and humans only (psychopaths excluded). However, there are so many disputes about what it is moral to do and what is not that attributing morality in general as a universal characteristic of being human seems a rather empty claim. But, even if one admits a universal sense of morality exists, why attribute it to modules back in the Pleistocene age? Can't other factors (let's say social or cultural forces) of human life over the last millennia have had such a result? In Human non- biological factors of human life are excluded from explaining our behavior. All conduct is explained by hypothesizing the adaptive problems our ancestors had and by hypothesizing the biological mechanism that evolved to solve those problems. Yet, since our ancestors have been long gone, there is no way to test or confirm such hypotheses or to choose one hypothesis over another. In fact, even the basic idea of Evolutionary Psychology is highly disputable: Human behavior is explained by appealing to psychological mechanisms (or modules) related to motives (beliefs or desires) that would have been selected for in the ancestral environment. The tricky part here is that someone must have had those motives (beliefs/desires). If not, then they cannot be used to explain ones behavior. The deep motive behind all sub-motives, and the only one with evolutionary relevance, is of course the motive to procreate and survive. So, do we have any reasons to believe that our ancestors had such a motive in mind, either consciously or unconsciously, while socializing, deceiving or recognizing deception, gossiping, creating music and arts or even when copulating? Can't they have behaved in these ways thus just for the sake of it (just like we often do)? This is the deep problem that psychological adaptationism suffers from; for one cannot explain a subject's behavior without appealing to the subject's motives, and one cannot appeal to the subject's motives in order to explain hers or his behavior, if they can't show that the subject actually had those motives. (see J. Fodor, 2005, "The selfish gene pool", TLS) None of these objections are brought up in Human. In fact, although many- many researchers, experiments and theories are mentioned in Gazzaniga's book, one cannot find a single discussion of any of the arguments against psychological Adaptationism. Hence, no serious defense of the theory is proposed either. Human is easily read and highly accessible to the wider public with lots of examples, a sense of humor etc. Yet what the wider public will read is, once again, one-sided popular science. More than that, they will once again be offered the Adaptionist's popular doctrine (paraphrasing P. Kitcher, 1985, Vaulting Ambition, p.396): Give us a wet Sunday afternoon and we will unriddle humanity!
© 2008 Renia Gasparatou
Renia Gasparatou, Lecturer of Philosophy, University of Patras. |
