Tag: cultural learning processes

274

The brain was already perfect, why should it keep growing?

Entrance to the "Mausoleum", Machu Picchu, Peru
Entrance to the "Mausoleum", Machu Picchu, Peru


Is the answer to the question of the end of brain growth really that simple? In the passage already quoted, Jürgen Habermas also overlooks the problem of the end of the growth of the human brain:

Once the growth of the human brain stopped, cultural learning processes began to take the place of genetic adaptation. What other animal species lack is the transfer of symbolically stored knowledge from generation to generation, such that it can be revised and expanded light of new experiences.

If genes cannot induce human adaptation, does culture have to take over? But where does culture come from? Who discovered cultural learning processes?

264

With the emergence of human culture and the cultural ability of modern humans, something new and unprecedented is emerging.

Parade, Cusco, Peru, 27. 8. 1989
Parade, Cusco, Peru, 27. 8. 1989


Why does culture develop? The mind? What are the reasons? What is the cause for this innovation that will fundamentally change the world of the human species? How did the brain become the basis of the human mind through a functional change?

The second question: What is new? How can we specifically describe the new issues that arise? In his review of Tomasello’s book The Origins of Human Communication, Jürgen Habermas writes:

After the increases in size of the human brain had stopped, cultural learning processes replaced genetic adaptation. What other animal species lack is the transfer of symbolically stored knowledge from generation to generation, such that it can be revised and expanded in the light of new experiences.
(Jürgen Habermas 2009; Es beginnt mit dem Zeigefinger, in: DIE ZEIT No. 51/2009 of 10 December 2009, p. 45)

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