Basic Concepts and Principles of Cognitive Evolution

Abstract

The chapter has a paradigmatic and methodological character. It begins with the “black-box” scheme of anthropogenesis and the challenge of transforming it into a “transparent box.” The main phenomena for the evolutionary explanation include the linguistic universals taken in Charles Hockett’s classic version and major features of consciousness. The “difficult problem” of consciousness will be left out of the brackets. Consciousness is defined according to “cognitive pluralism” as a special integration of accumulated mental abilities, including those providing subjective experience, the structure of “self” and volition. The a priori rules of language structure emergence are formulated as the initial axiomatics and the framework of further reasoning. The concepts “gene-culture coevolution” and “cultural drive” serve as the biological evolutionary basis of the research. “Evolutionary zones of proximal development” and the functional model as a dynamic interaction of factors play an important role in its systemic foundation. The core concepts of the model are defined within this construction: concerns, support (or providing) structures, and “magic wands.” Evolutionary principles are formulated as the basis for subsequent reasoning about patterns of sapientation and glottogenesis.