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- Mar 2023
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royalsocietypublishing.org royalsocietypublishing.org
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The problem with this way of defining things is that we ignore the fact that, even when acting in a manner that appears to involve no direct interaction with other creatures, organisms nonetheless develop and learn in environments that have been affected by the prior actions of their conspecifics (and not just their conspecifics). This is precisely the sort of phenomenon stressed by the proponents of the niche-construction approach to evolution, and it is also stressed by developmental systems theorists [40,41]. Organisms grow in environments that have been constructed by the actions of previous generations: in that way, what an organism learns can be profoundly affected and enhanced by the collective activities of individuals it may never meet. In other words, we should not assume that there is any good distinction between individual learning and what we might call ‘social transmission’. The latter can be achieved via the former.
- This primate example demonstrates an ambiguity between individual and social learning.
- The problem with this way of defining things exclusively as either
- individual or
- social
- is that we ignore the fact that,
- even when acting in a manner
- that appears to involve no direct interaction with other creatures,
- organisms nonetheless develop and learn in environments
- that have been affected by the prior actions of their conspecifics (and not just their conspecifics).
- This is precisely the sort of phenomenon
- stressed by the proponents of the niche-construction approach to evolution,
- and it is also stressed by developmental systems theorists [40,41].
- Organisms grow in environments that have been constructed
- by the actions of previous generations:
- in that way, what an organism learns
- can be profoundly affected and enhanced
- by the collective activities of individuals it may never meet.
- by the actions of previous generations:
- In other words, we should not assume
- that there is any good distinction
- between
- individual learning and
- what we might call ‘social transmission’.
- The latter can be achieved via the former.
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