Abstract
This article analyzes the emergence of private and inner speech from the perspective of natural selection, arguing that social speech acts as a selection pressure for the emergence of private speech, that private speech acts as a selection pressure that leads to the emergence of inner speech, and that this view of private and inner speech may help to explain the natural selection of a variety of other traits of the human mind in an asymmetric intraspecific evolutionary arms race.
Highlights
Edited by: Phil Kavanagh, University of Canberra, AustraliaReviewed by: Juan David Leongómez, El Bosque University, ColombiaWei Chen, Shaoxing University, ChinaSpecialty section: This article was submitted to Evolutionary Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in PsychologyReceived: 17 September 2019 Accepted: 22 January 2020Published: 18 February 2020Citation: O’Connor S (2020) The Natural Selection of Private and Inner Speech.Front
I present the reader with a brief overview of the concept of natural selection, discuss the selection pressures that may be responsible for the propagation of private and inner speech, and explain how inner speech itself may have acted as a selection pressure which helps to explain the emergence of a variety of other traits in an asymmetric intraspecific evolutionary arms race
I have argued that advanced interpersonal speech creates a selection pressure for the emergence of private speech, which creates a selection pressure for the emergence of inner speech due to a selfish evolutionary need to avoid the detection and punishment of cheating with private speech
Summary
This article analyzes the emergence of private and inner speech from the perspective of natural selection, arguing that social speech acts as a selection pressure for the emergence of private speech, that private speech acts as a selection pressure that leads to the emergence of inner speech, and that this view of private and inner speech may help to explain the natural selection of a variety of other traits of the human mind in an asymmetric intraspecific evolutionary arms race.
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