Why We Cooperate
by Michael Tomasello et al. MIT Press. 2009. 204 pages. $14.95.
In the next decade, research into human infants’ thought patterns might help answer millennia-old questions about human nature, speculate anthropologist Michael Tomasello and co-authors in Why We Cooperate.
Tomasello reviews studies that compared human children with apes and found the humans to be uniquely cooperative: Only human children convey information to one another, exhibit teamwork, share their belongings, or object when others are not being “fair.”
But where did humans’ unique cooperativeness emerge, wonders psychologist Carol Dweck. She argues that it is not entirely from nature; children’s altruistic behaviors are heavily influenced by other people.
Philosopher Brian Skyrms encourages researchers to study the cooperation that exists across the animal kingdom: Bacteria, mole rats, meerkats, and many insects are very cooperative with each other.
Psychologist Elizabeth Spelke posits that human’s cooperation started after humans developed language. She notes that at around age two, humans begin to display unique abilities that are possible only with language: analyzing information, understanding math, discerning other people’s intentions, communicating ideas through gestures, and helping others to achieve goals.
Why We Cooperate is an impressive convergence of philosophy and hard science that the layperson will find very approachable and engaging.
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