Abstract
What is the nature of the mechanism that has created human mental development in its particular form, rather than in any other? Investigations conducted during the past several years (Lumsden & Wilson, 1980a, 1980b, 1981) indicate that a study of the answers to this question is the key to a characterization of human nature that is more complete and appropriate than has hitherto been possible. Each of the disciplines of the social sciences is ultimately shaped by its perception of the core properties of human behavior. If these properties could somehow be specified in a manner that generates laws of mind and cultural organization, even in crude form, the contents of the constituent disciplines might be reformulated to some degree and explained by a common theory. If, in addition, the biology and evolutionary origins of the core properties can be sufficiently well understood, a network of causal explanation could be devised that bridges the social sciences and human sociobiology—the discipline that deals with the biological foundations of social behavior in Homo sapiens.
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Lumsden, C.J. (1983). Gene-Culture Linkages and the Developing Mind. In: Brainerd, C.J. (eds) Recent Advances in Cognitive-Developmental Theory. Springer Series in Cognitive Development. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9490-7_3
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