Table of contents
Chapter 1.Introduction
Chapter 2.Complexity and coherence in biological design: An evolutionary-developmental account
2.1System complexity, hierarchy and coherence
2.1.1Networks of matching structures and functions
2.1.2Complexity and hierarchic structure
2.1.3Is pre-biological complex organization the same?
2.2The rise of complex coherence in biological design
2.2.1From parasitic bacteria to symbiotic organelles in the protozoan
cell
2.2.2From protozoa to metazoa: The rise of multi-cellular organisms
2.3Intermezzo: Spatio-temporal experience and the advent of dimensions
2.3.1Preliminaries
2.3.2Experience in a one-dimensional universe of linear time
2.3.3Experience in a universe of time plus one spatial dimension: Early upright organisms
2.3.4Motion and the advent of a three-dimensional universe
2.3.5Purposive motion and the advent of agency
2.4From early multi-cell simplicity to tissues, organs and system
complexity
2.5Body design, molecular classification and evolutionary
hierarchies
2.6Final reflections
2.6.1Coherence and context in biological design
2.6.1.1Internal coherence
2.6.1.2External coherence
2.6.2The seesaw of size aggregation
Chapter 3.Complexity, hierarchy and coherence in neuro-cognition
3.1Recapitulation
3.2The primate brain
3.2.1General architecture: The three brains
3.2.2Perception, cognition and coherence control
3.3General architecture: Periphery to core – and back
3.4Three function-specific cortical network
3.4.1The visual information network
3.4.2The attentional network
3.4.3The working memory network
3.4.4What of language?
3.5Other major mental representational systems
3.5.1Overview
3.5.2Long-term semantic memory
3.5.3Episodic and/or ‘declarative’ memory
3.5.4Attention and working memory
3.6Attended vs. automated processing
3.7Automaticity, complexity, hierarchy and coherence
Chapter 4.Cultural coherence
4.1Introduction
4.1.1The social context of cooperation and communication
4.1.2Rational choice vs. implicit conventions
4.2The Society of Intimates
4.2.1Preliminaries
4.2.2General characteristics
4.3Kinship-based cooperation: The Trobriand case
4.3.1Land ownership, land-use and residence
4.3.2Kinship and marriage
4.3.3The life-cycle of cooperation
4.3.4Kinship and reciprocity
4.3.5The adaptive logic of the Trobriand yam exchange
4.4Reciprocity and kinship hierarchies: Ute
4.5Dealing with strangers
4.5.1Estrangement and de-alienation: The Western Apache
4.5.2Contexts of de-alienation
4.6Mitigating the hazards of communication
4.6.1Preamble
4.6.2Private discourse and the costs of new information
4.7Culture a mechanism for automated social action
4.8The persistent relevance of the Society of Intimates
4.9Closure
Chapter 5.Language, coherence and other minds
5.1Context as other minds
5.2Grammar, communication and other minds
5.2.1The grounding of definite referents
5.2.2Speech acts: Access to the interlocutor’s epistemic and deontic
states
5.2.3Negation and other minds
5.3Relevant social unit and shared cognition
5.4Reasoning by feature associationn – the wrong metaphor?
5.5Intermezzo: Other minds and ‘Theory of Mind’
5.6Grammar and communication
5.6.1Developmental-evolutionary perspective
5.6.2Grammar as structure
5.6.3Grammar as adaptive function
5.6.4Communicating without grammar
5.7The whys of grammar: Context, automaticity, and other minds
Chapter 6.Discourse coherence
6.1Re-orientation
6.2The coherence structure of discourse
6.3Referential coherence as grounding
6.3.1Continuity, connectivity and grounding
6.3.2Temporal axis: Anaphoric vs. cataphoric grounding
6.4Intermezzo: The domain of reference
6.4.1Truth and reference in the Real World
6.4.2Referential intent in a universe of discourse
6.4.3Reference and propositional modalities
6.4.4Reference vs. topicality/importance
6.5The grammar of anaphoric continuity (accessibility)
6.5.1High-continuity grammatical devices
6.5.2Low continuity devices
6.6Quantitative distribution of major referent-coding devices
6.6.1Preliminaries
6.6.2Individual languages
6.6.3Word order, topicality and referential continuity
6.6.4Interim summary
6.7Grammar and cognition: The grammar of referential coherence as mental processing
instructions
6.7.1Preamble
6.7.2Filing and storage conventions
6.7.3Cognitive operations
6.8Discussion
Chapter 7.Coherence and clause chaining
7.1Re-orientation
7.2Recapitulation I: Clause-chains and thematic coherence
7.3Recapitulation II: The grammar of referential coherence
7.3.1General outline
7.3.2Highest continuity devices
7.3.3Short-distance discontinuity devices
7.3.4Long-distance discontinuity devices
7.3.5From anaphoric to catapohoric continuity
7.4The grammaticalization of clause chaining
7.4.1Pre-grammar baseline: Second-language pidgin
7.4.2Zero (SS) vs. independent pronoun (DS): Ute
7.4.3Agreement (SS) vs. independent pronouns (DS): Bantu, Romance
7.5Complex grammaticalization of continuing reference (SS) vs.
switch-reference (DS)
7.5.1Preliminaries
7.5.2Early stages of complex grammaticalization: Kanite, Kosena
7.5.3Late-stage complex grammaticalization
7.5.3.1Kalam
7.5.3.2Tairora
7.5.3.3Kobon and Haruai
7.5.3.4Usan
7.6Finiteness gradients and clause chaining
7.6.1Finiteness: A brief introduction
7.6.2Participials cum case-agreement: Jiwarli
7.7Clause-chaining and discourse coherence
Chapter 8.The coherence of organized science
8.1The scientist vs. the organism
8.2Reductionist extremes in the philosophy of science
8.2.1Preamble
8.2.2Deductivist accounts
8.2.3Inductivist accounts
8.3Pragmatics in empirical science
8.3.1Preamble
8.3.2Theory-laden facts
8.3.3Abductive inference
8.3.4Role of the three inference types in the empirical cycle
8.4Explanation as contextual coherence
8.4.1Deductive ‘explanations’
8.4.2The contextual pragmatics of explanation
8.5Causal explanation
8.5.1Preamble
8.5.2The ontology of causation
8.5.2.1From temporal order to logical conditionality
8.5.2.2From conditionality to causality
8.5.2.3From causality to agency
8.5.2.4Volitional motion, purposive action and agency
8.6Functional explanation
8.7Closure
Chapter 9.Coherence and human nature: Are we a warlike species?
9.1Nature vs. artifice
9.2Judaic antiquity
9.3Christian antiquity
9.4Greek antiquity
9.4.1Epicure
9.4.2Aristotle
9.4.3Plato
9.5The Enlightenment
9.5.1The chain of transmission
9.5.2Thomas Hobbes
9.5.3J.-J. Rousseau
9.5.4Adam Smith
9.5.5Charles Darwin
9.6The post-Darwinian synthesis
9.6.1Overview
9.6.2Selfishness, altruism and natural selection
9.6.3Empathy and cooperation in primates and children
9.6.4The gender dimension
9.7Cooperation, morality and the in-out boundary
9.8Human nature and social coherence
9.9Closure
Chapter 10.Coherence and the bounds of diversity
10.1Preface
10.2Diversity and invariance in evolutionary biology
10.2.1The Darwinian model
10.2.2Post-Darwinian evolutionary biology
10.2.2.1Variation
10.2.2.2Invariance
10.2.2.3Selection
10.3The durability of an old social adaptation
10.3.1Preliminaries
10.3.2Information and communication in the Society of Intimates
10.3.2.1Types of mental representation
10.3.2.2Evolved communication
10.4The Society of Strangers
10.5Human nature
10.5.1Recapitulation
10.5.2Empathy, altruism and cooperation
10.6The conundrum of diversity and the mirage of multi-culturalism
10.6.1Preamble
10.6.2The wages of excess diversity
10.6.3What about color?
10.6.4Tale of two cultures
10.6.5What about Gender?
10.7Is there a way out?
10.7.1Nature vs. artifice, again
10.7.2The religious option
10.7.3The state’s option
10.7.4The neuro-scientist’s option
10.7.5Hyper-sociality or A.I.?
10.8Final note
Bibliography
General index
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