The forgotten transition

According to Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection man is one species among many. This provokes in a self-evident way comparison of anatomical and physiological characteristics. Less common is the idea that the same approach can be put forward with regard to cognition. On a particular moment in evolution the cognitive abilities of the branch which would eventually result in the human species must have been of the same type as these from other species evolving into different kinds of non human primates. The intriguing question then is what could have caused the development into the type of cognition characterizing man.

According to the author the different approach between apes and man in producing stone tools unveils a clue indicating an important difference in perceptive cognitive organisation and this in relation to the same input. This different organisational perspective goes with particular characteristics opening a way of negotiating the world which in the end would prove to be highly promising.

In this volume the potential of that particular perspective is being explored. The ideas proposed will then be confronted with relevant points of view brought forward by other authors.

“I believe that he [John Gilbert] has, in fact, identified an important, missing piece in the puzzle of hominin cognitive evolution.” Thomas Wynn, Centre for Cognitive Archaeology, University of Colorado

John Gilbert studied Ethics and Philosophy at the University of Ghent. His doctoral research investigated the cognitive dimension of consciousness. In a later project on the alleged impact of the workings of mirror neurons, the importance of embodiment and of action became a central theme. Influenced by Kant’s transcendental approach, the focus was directed on the conditions making the typical human way of having knowledge possible. The present book offers an illustration of this endeavour.