The Evolution of Thought

Reviews the reasons for and the nature of great ape intelligence and its implications for human intelligence.

Great apes are the most intelligent primates next to humans, but exactly how this intelligence arose has been debated for many years. Here, paleontologists, biologists, anthropologists and psychologists are brought together to review the reasons for, and the nature of, great ape intelligence and its implications for human intelligence.Research on the evolution of higher intelligence rarely combines data from fields as diverse as paleontology and psychology. In this volume we seek to do just that, synthesizing the approaches of hominoid cognition, psychology, language studies, ecology, evolution, paleoecology and systematics toward an understanding of great ape intelligence. Leading scholars from all these fields have been asked to evaluate the manner in which each of their topics of research inform our understanding of the evolution of intelligence in great apes and humans. The ideas thus assembled represent a comprehensive survey of the various causes and consequences of cognitive evolution in great apes. The Evolution of Thought will therefore be an essential reference for graduate students and researchers in evolutionary psychology, paleoanthropology and primatology.