The tripod effect

co-evolution of cooperation, cognition and communication

Peter Gärdenfors

Ingar Brinck

Mathias Osvath

pp. 193-222

in: Theresa Schilhab, Frederik Stjernfelt, Terrence W. Deacon (eds), The symbolic species evolved, Berlin, Springer, 2012

Abstrakt

This article concerns the co-evolution of hominin cooperation, communication and cognition. Certain hominin ecologies seem to have relied on cognitive foresight. The capacity of planning for future needs, combined with more developed cooperative skills, opened up the cognitive niche of cooperation towards future goals. Such cooperation requires complex intersubjectivity (theory of mind). We analyze five domains of intersubjectivity: emotion, desire, attention, intention, and belief; and argue that cooperation towards future goals requires, among other things, joint intentions (we-intentions). We scrutinize the cognitive and communicative conditions for reciprocal altruism, found in some species; and indirect reciprocity, a form of cooperation typical in the hominin line.Sharing intentions and beliefs about the future requires communication about what is not present in the current environment. Symbols are efficient tools for this kind of communication, and we argue that the benefits of cooperation for the future selected for the evolution of symbolic communication. In line with recent models describing how indirect reciprocity might develop into an evolutionarily stable strategy, we emphasize the need for yet more complex intersubjectivity and symbolic communication, including a minimal syntax.Our argumentation triangulates hominin cognition, cooperation, and communication, showing how these interdependent factors mutually reinforce each other over the course of evolution. The new take in this article is the combined analyses of cooperation and cognitive mechanisms. Finally, our theses are linked to archaeological evidence.