Una charla corta del neurólogo V.S. Ramachandran sobre la importancia de las neuronas espejo en el desarrollo de la civilización y la cultura.
Ver vídeo
One way to explain "indirect reciprocity" is to say: "I help you and somebody else´s helps me in return". This concept has become more important in the past few years. There are two approaches interested on this issue. One of them is social science, because indirect reciprocity is a clue in the emerging Global Market. The other is evolutionary biology because this behaviour affects human societies which are the latest big step in evolution. Several experiments have been made and theorical models proposed in order to show the costs and benefits of indirect reciprocity. The possibilities for games of manipulation, coalition and betrayal are limitless so the main strategy for success is building a reputation.
Religión, el terrorismo suicida y los fundamentos morales del mundo
Author: Scott Atran Language:
spanish
"Los ateos de los Estados Unidos son más propensos a votar a un candidato a presidente religioso que a una persona no creyente"
¿Qué motivos les empujan? ¿Qué es lo que lleva a jóvenes a convertirse en terroristas suicidas? En este ensayo, el antropólogo americano Scott Atran analiza los factores que influyen en la aparición de este nuevo terrorismo, así como también, los principios morales que emergen en occidente.
Religion, Suicide, Terrorism and the moral foundation of the world
Author: Scott Atran Language:
english
"In truth, suicide terrorists generally have no appreciable psychopathology and are often wholly committed to what they believe to be devout moral principles" Scott Atran
Why do they do it? What is it that turns young men, some with good life prospects, into suicide bombers? In this essay, the US academic Scott Atran revolves around this new way of terrorism and the morality that arises in Occident.
The derived FOXP2 variant of modern human was shared with Neandertals; by Johannes Krause, Carles Lalueza-Fox et al.
Author: Johannes Krauser , Carles Lalueza-Fox , Ludovic Orlando , Wolfgang Enard , Richard E. Green , Hernán A. Burbano , Jean Jacques Hublin , Catherin Hänni , Javier Fortea , Marco de la Rasilla , Jaume Bertranpetit , Antonio Rosas , Svänte Pääbo Language:
english
"Here, we find that our closest extinct relatives, the Neandertals, share with modern humans two evolutionary changes in FOXP2, a gene that has been implicated in the development of speech and language."
Neanderthals are the extinct hominid group most closely related to contemporary humans, so their genome offers a unique opportunity to identify genetic changes specific to modern humans. This paper illustrates how scientists investigated DNA from Neanderthal bones concentrating on a gene, FOXP2, which is to date the only one known to play a role in speech and language. Their results illustrate the usefulness of retrieving direct genetic information from ancient remains for understanding recent human evolution.
Testosterone rules; by Robert Sapolsky
Author: Robert Sapolsky Language:
english
"I have a generic abnormality generally considered to be associated with high rates of certain socially abhorrent behaviors: I am male." Robert Sapolsky
Professor of biology and neuroscience at Stanford University, Robert Sapolsky carries impressive credentials. Best of all, he's a gifted writer who possesses a delightfully devilish sense of humor. In this essay, he focuses on the relationships between biology and human behaviour and ruminates on the links, real or perceived, between testosterone and aggression.
Mimbres para un humanismo científico; por Oscar Vilarroya
Author: Oscar Vilarroya Language:
spanish
"A menudo me pregunto cómo se puede plantear ponerse de acuerdo para construir un futuro común (los que al menos quieren eso), cuando es plenamente factible que tras cada puerta de un mismo departamento universitario (o, tampoco importa, de una planta de un edificio de viviendas) pueden coexistir individuos..." Oscar Vilarroya
Darwin believed that his theory of evolution would stand or fall on its ability to account for human behavior. No species could be an exception to his theory without imperiling the whole edifice.
Language originated in social brains; by Luc Steels
Author: Luc Steels Language:
english
"Even supposing that we have a theory that can explain how "language-ready" brains create and coordinate languages of greater and greater complexity, a third question remains: Where does this language-ready brain come from?" Luc Steels
The question of the origins of language is today one of the central and hotly debated areas in human-related sciences and is directly relevant to the question how and why are brains became so profoundly social.
In my work, I have been engaged in different experiments with artificial systems (robots).... and are then programmed to engage in language games, routinized local interactions which have a side effect that some sort of communication system with language-like features emerges.
Language co-evolved with the rule of law; by Chris Knight
Author: Chris Knight Language:
english
Evolution of language. Sixth International Conference. Rome, April 2006.
The challenge is to explain on a Darwinian basis how life could have become subject to the rule of law. Only then, an appropriate framework will exist to explain the origins of language.
Entumecimiento y exaltación en los mártires; por Adolf Tobeña
Author: Adolf Tobeña Language:
spanish
Entumecimiento y exaltación moral en los mártires mortíferos: una mirada desde la neurociencia
"De todas las diferencias existentes entre el hombre y los animales
inferiores el sentido moral o conciencia es la más importante. El sentido moral
tiene verdadera supremacía sobre todo otro principio de las acciones humanas
y se resume en la breve pero imperiosa palabra deber, cuyo sentido es tan
elevado. Es el más noble atributo del hombre; el que le impele, sin vacilaciones
de ningún género, a poner en riesgo su vida por la de sus semejantes, o le
mueve, tras madura deliberación, a sacrificarla en aras de una gran causa,
guiado por la sola impulsión del derecho o del deber".
Ch. Darwin (1871): The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex
Social Brain Matters. Stances on the neurobiology of social cognition
¿Podemos aprender a ser más altruistas? ¿Qué mecanismos biológicos se esconden detrás de la moral? A lo largo de este manuscrito, filósofos, neurólogos, biólogos, lingüistas y antropólogos analizan los descubrimientos científicos más relevantes en el campo de la biología y neurología implicados en el comportamiento social. Además, hacen palpable la importancia de incluir este nuevo conocimiento para llevar a cabo un análisis social eficaz.
Resumen, conferencia de Robert Trivers: El autoengaño, ¿una adaptación evolutiva? Barcelona, Mayo 2007
Author: Robert Trivers Language:
spanish
El día 3 de mayo, a las 17h, la Càtedra “El cervell social” presentó una conferencia magistral a cargo de Robert Trivers, seguida de dos intervenciones de Antoni Gomila y de Arcadi Navarro.
Robert Trivers es catedrático de Antropología en la Rutgers University, y ganador del Premio Crafoord 2007 que otorga la Real Academia Sueca para complementar las disciplinas que carecen de Premio Nobel. Trivers ha sido un pionero en el estudio sobre la evolución de la conducta social en los animales, y ha establecido las bases teóricas y empíricas de lo que ahora se conoce como sociobiología. Antoni Gomila es profesor de filosofía de la mente en la Facultad de Psicología de las Islas Baleares, y Arcadi Navarro es investigador en biología evolutiva de la Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
