Why Me?
The Sociocultural Evolution of a Self-Reflective Mind

This book describes the human capacity for self-reflection, which evolved in response to sociocultural pressures on the minds of children.

Radu J. Bogdan (Author)

9781108995573, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 23 March 2023

215 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.2 cm, 0.32 kg

'Radu Bogdan puts his finger on the central question about the human mind: the capacity for self-conscious reflection on one's own mental processes. His evolutionary account provides a worthy alternative to Descartes' belief that the mind is transparent to itself and the behavioralist view that denies self-consciousness altogether.' David Olson, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, University of Toronto, Canada

This book explores the evolution of the mental competence for self-reflection: why it evolved, under what selection pressures, in what environments, out of what precursors, and with what mental resources. Integrating evolutionary, psychological, and philosophical perspectives, Radu J. Bogdan argues that the competence for self-reflection, uniquely human and initially autobiographical, evolved under strong and persistent sociocultural and political (collaborative and competitive) pressures on the developing minds of older children and later adults. Self-reflection originated in a basic propensity of the human brain to rehearse anticipatively mental states, speech acts, actions, and states of the world in order to service one's elaborate goal policies. These goal policies integrate offline representations of one's own mental states and actions and those of others in order to handle the challenges of a complex and dynamic sociopolitical and sociocultural life, calling for an adaptive intramental self-regulation: that intramental adaptation is self-reflection.

Introduction
1. Framing the issue
Part I. The Architecture: 2. Basic resources
3. With self in mind
Part II. The Evolution: 4. An evolutionary paradigm
5. Reasons for self-reflection
6. Scaffolding self-reflection
7. A public sense of me
8. Questions and answers
Index.

Subject Areas: Perception [JMRP], Learning [JMRL], Cognition & cognitive psychology [JMR], Cognitivism, cognitive theory [JMAQ], Psychoanalytical theory [Freudian psychology JMAF], Psychology [JM]