Cognition, evolution, and sociality

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to build up a theoretical framework for a more comprehensive understanding of human cognition as an evolutionary and developmentally complex process constituted through social relations. Sociality and cognition are part and parcel of becoming a human and a person. Thanks to Dynamic Systems Theories, a non-linear, non-dualistic nor deterministic approach is taken for the understanding of the heterochronic mutually specified processes encountered in evolutionary and developmentally systems. In light of neurophysiological evidence, embodiment theory and situated cognition, Neo-Darwinist accounts of cognition are discussed and reviewed. Special attention is given to dialogic relations and socialization in ontogeny, by which knowledge is re-created and embodied in new generations. Last but not least, some considerations are made with respect to the externalization and objectivization of knowledge as recursive mediators/amplifiers for further cognitive evolution that allows, in turn, for more social complexity.