An evolutionary look at oddity and schizotypy: How the rise of social brain informs clinical practice

A prominent facet of schizotypy is the recurrence of odd cognitions, emotions, and behaviors. This paper aims to present an evolutionary interpretation of oddity as a risk-minimizing and uniqueness-maximizing strategy for facing the complexity of our hyper-affiliative species. I discuss this hypothesis by exploring the intertwined role of social safety and social cognition in preventing or triggering psychopathology. Since schizotypy is reputed to be a polygenic dimension, its underlying genes are likely involved in both adaptive and maladaptive traits. Consequently, the oddity is presented as both an evolutionary trade-off and a possible advantage in the rise of our complex social brain. The clinical implications of conceptualizing schizotypy and supporting those struggling with maladaptive forms of oddity are discussed.     

Is there an evolutionary advantage of schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia is a universal disorder with strongly genetic aetiology. A constant prevalence rate, universally, in the face of reduced fecundity leads to the argument here that an evolutionary advantage exists, but not solely for schizophrenia. Possible areas of advantage are examined and it is argued that schizophrenia exists as a costly trade-off, in the evolution of Homo sapiens, as a by-product of a yet unknown uniquely human quality. The reason it has stayed in existence is due to a combination of advantages bestowed upon the kin, the group and, to a lesser extent, individuals who suffer from the disorder; these all contribute a different type of advantage, each of which alone would not be sufficient. Further, the evidence for the other advantages alone lack the rigour of evidence seen in the by-product theories, which provide as yet unparalleled comprehensive evolutionary evidence.     

Evolution and development of boys’ social behavior

An evolutionary analysis of the dynamics of one-on-one and coalitional male–male competition provides a theoretical frame for conceptualizing the evolved functions and proximate developmental forms of the social behavior of boys, and for appreciating why the behavior of boys differs from that of girls. We propose the accompanying selection pressures favored the evolution of motivational and behavioral dispositions in boys and men that facilitate the development and maintenance of large, competitive coalitions and result in the formation of within-coalition dominance hierarchies. Empirical research on boys’ social development is reviewed using this frame and implications for interpreting boys’ social behavior are explored.     

Trust,risk, and the social contract

The problem of trust is discussed in terms of David Hume’s meadow-draining example. This is analyzed in terms of rational choice, evolutionary game theory and a dynamic model of social network formation. The kind of explanation that postulates an innate predisposition to trust is seen to be unnecessary when social network dynamics is taken into account.     

Evidence for a non-linguistic distinction between singular and plural sets in rhesus monkeys

Set representations are explicitly expressed in natural language. For example, many languages distinguish between sets and subsets (all vs. some), as well as between singular and plural sets (a cat vs. some cats). Three experiments explored the hypothesis that these representations are language specific, and thus absent from the conceptual resources of non-linguistic animals. We found that rhesus monkeys spontaneously discriminate sets based on a conceptual singular-plural distinction. Under conditions that do not elicit comparisons based on approximate magnitudes or one-to-one correspondence, rhesus monkeys distinguished between singular and plural sets (1 vs. 2 and 1 vs. 5), but not between two plural sets (2 vs. 3, 2 vs. 4, and 2 vs. 5). These results suggest that set-relational distinctions are not a privileged part of natural language, and may have evolved in non-linguistic species to support domain general quantitative computations.     

Do Humans Really Learn AnBn Artificial Grammars From Exemplars?

An important topic in the evolution of language is the kinds of grammars that can be computed by humans and other animals. Fitch and Hauser (F&H; 2004) approached this question by assessing the ability of different species to learn 2 grammars, (AB)(n) and A(n) B(n) . A(n) B(n) was taken to indicate a phrase structure grammar, eliciting a center-embedded pattern. (AB)(n) indicates a grammar whose strings entail only local relations between the categories of constituents. F&H's data suggest that humans, but not tamarin monkeys, learn an A(n) B(n) grammar, whereas both learn a simpler (AB)(n) grammar (Fitch & Hauser, 2004). In their experiments, the A constituents were syllables pronounced by a female voice, whereas the B constituents were syllables pronounced by a male voice. This study proposes that what characterizes the A(n) B(n) exemplars is the distributional regularities of the syllables pronounced by either a male or a female rather than the underlying, more abstract patterns. This article replicates F&H's data and reports new controls using either categories similar to those in F&H or less salient ones. This article shows that distributional regularities explain the data better than grammar learning. Indeed, when familiarized with A(n) B(n) exemplars, participants failed to discriminate A(3) B(2) and A(2) B(3) from A(n) B(n) items, missing the crucial feature that the number of As must equal the number of Bs. Therefore, contrary to F&H, this study concludes that no syntactic rules implementing embedded nonadjacent dependencies were learned in these experiments. The difference between human linguistic abilities and the putative precursors in monkeys deserves further exploration.     

Towards a Philosophy of Software Development: 40 Years after the Birth of Software Engineering

Over the past four decades, software engineering has emerged as a discipline in its own right, though it has roots both in computer science and in classical engineering. Its philosophical foundations and premises are not yet well understood. In recent times, members of the software engineering community have started to search for such foundations. In particular, the philosophies of Kuhn and Popper have been used by philosophically-minded software engineers in search of a deeper understanding of their discipline. It seems, however, that professional philosophers of science are not yet aware of this new discourse within the field of software engineering. Therefore, this article aims to reflect critically upon recent software engineers’ attempts towards a philosophy of software engineering and to introduce our own philosophical thoughts in this context. Finally, we invite the professional philosophers of science to participate in this interesting new discourse.

Evolution,Suffering, and Eschatological Redemption: Sollereder,Southgate, and Russell on Theodicy

Two new books helpfully refine the position vaunted by Theistic Evolution. These two books will garner the interest especially of the proleptic school within Theistic Evolution, which affirms (1) the long history of evolution as God's creative work; (2) the Theology of the Cross wherein God shares in the sufferings and even death of all creatures, animals included; (3) Jesus’ Easter resurrection as a prolepsis of the eschatological new creation; and (4) the coincidence of creation with redemption. These two provocative new works are Bethany Sollereder's God, Evolution, and Animal Suffering: Theodicy without a Fall, along with Christopher Southgate's Theology in a Suffering World: Glory and Longing. This article tackles a problem surfacing in the work of both Sollereder and Southgate: when eliminating the fall, the combination of redemption and creation becomes incoherent. Robert John Russell's “fall without a fall” provides greater coherence in the proleptic version of Theistic Evolution.     

颜色类别知觉效应的机制：语言的作用

颜色类别知觉效应(Category Perception, CP效应)表明, 在颜色之间物理差异距离相等的前提下, 个体区分不同类别的颜色比区分同一类别的颜色更快、更准确。这一效应产生的机制成为普遍进化理论和Sapir-Whorf假设之间争论的重要证据。支持CP效应由语言驱动的学者提出了CP效应单侧化、受语言即时任务影响、跨语言研究和神经生理机制等证据, 以表明语言在CP效应中起决定性的作用; 支持CP效应具有普遍性的学者以CP效应双侧化、婴儿的CP效应、跨语言的反证等证据提出了质疑。近年来, 出现了第三种观点, 认为在颜色CP效应中语言驱动机制和普遍机制并存, 这种理论是普遍进化理论和Whorf假设的折衷观点。从支持CP效应由语言驱动的证据、支持CP效应独立于语言的证据以及支持两种机制并存的观点等三个方面入手, 可分析颜色CP效应的产生机制及语言在其中所起的作用, 未来研究可从概念系统渗入知觉系统的角度进行拓展。