Cogprints

Future Psychological Evolution

Stewart, John (2001) Future Psychological Evolution. [Journal (On-line/Unpaginated)]

Full text available as:

[img] HTML
84Kb

Abstract

Humans are able to construct mental representations and models of possible interactions with their environment. They can use these mental models to identify actions that will enable them to achieve their adaptive goals. But humans do not use this capacity to identify and implement the actions that would contribute most to the evolutionary success of humanity. In general, humans do not find motivation or satisfaction in doing so, no matter how effective such actions might be in evolutionary terms. From an evolutionary perspective, this is a significant limitation in the psychological adaptability of humans. This paper sets out to identify the new psychological capacity that would be needed to overcome this limitation and how the new capacity might be acquired. Humans that develop this capacity will become self-evolving organisms - organisms that are able to adapt in whatever ways are necessary for future evolutionary success, largely unfettered by their biological and social past.

Item Type:Journal (On-line/Unpaginated)
Keywords:psychological evolution; evolvability; evolution of consciousness; nature/nurture; human evolution; evolutionary transition
Subjects:Biology > Sociobiology
Psychology > Developmental Psychology
Psychology > Evolutionary Psychology
Philosophy > Philosophy of Mind
ID Code:1995
Deposited By: Stewart, John Edward
Deposited On:31 Dec 2001
Last Modified:11 Mar 2011 08:54

References in Article

Select the SEEK icon to attempt to find the referenced article. If it does not appear to be in cogprints you will be forwarded to the paracite service. Poorly formated references will probably not work.

Ashby, W. R. (1960), Design for a Brain 2nd ed. (New York: Wiley).

Beer, S. (1972), Brain of the firm (London: Allen Lane).

Conant, R. C. and W. Ross Ashby (1970), ‘Every good regulator of a system must be a model of that system’, Int. J. Systems Sci. 1, pp. 89-97.

Cosmides, L. and J. Tooby (2000), ‘Evolutionary psychology and the emotions’, in Handbook of Emotions 2nd ed., Lewis, M. and J. M. Haviland-Jones Eds., (New York: Guilford).

Covey, S. R. (1989), The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (New York: Simon and Schuster).

Deikman, A. J. (1996), ‘“I” = Awareness’, Journal of Consciousness Studies, 3, pp.350-6.

Dennett, D. C. (1995), Darwin’s Dangerous Idea (New York: Simon and Schuster).

Driscoll, J. W. (1985), Gurdjieff: an annotated bibliography (New York: Garland Publishing).

Driscoll, J. W. (1999), Gurdjieff: a Reading Guide (Los Altos: Gurdjieff Electronic Publishing).

Forman, R. K. C. (1998), ‘What does mysticism have to teach us about consciousness?’, Journal of Consciousness Studies, 5, 185-201.

Frank, R. H. (1988), Passions within Reason (New York: Norton).

Heylighen, F. (1991), ‘Cognitive Levels of Evolution: from pre-rational to meta-rational’, in The Cybernetics of Complex Systems – Self-organisation, Evolution and Social Change, F. Geyer Ed., (Salinas, California: Intersystems) pp.75-91.

Needham, J. (1995), ‘G. I. Gurdjieff and His School’ in Modern Esoteric Spirituality, Faivre, A. and Needleman, J. Eds., (New York: Crossroads).

Nicol, M. (1980a), Psychological Commentaries on the Teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky Volumes 1 to 5 (London: Watkins).

Nicol, M. (1980b), ‘The Four Bodies of man’, in Psychological Commentaries on the Teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (London: Watkins) 1, pp. 218-35.

Nicol, M. (1980c), ‘Commentary on Self-Observation and ‘I’s’, in Psychological Commentaries on the Teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (London: Watkins) 1, pp. 302-17.

Popper, K. R. (1972), Objective knowledge - an evolutionary approach (Oxford: Clarendon).

Stewart, J. E. (1995), ‘Metaevolution’, Journal of Social and Evolutionary Systems 18, pp. 113-47.

Stewart, J. E. (1997a), ‘The Evolution of Genetic Cognition’, Journal of Social and Evolutionary Systems 20, pp. 53-73.

Stewart, J. E. (1997b), ‘Evolutionary Progress’, Journal of Social and Evolutionary Systems 20, pp. 335-62.

Stewart, J. E. (1997c), ‘Evolutionary transitions and artificial life’, Artificial Life 3, pp. 101-120.

Stewart, J. E. (2000), Evolution’s Arrow (Rivett: Chapman Press).

Tart, C. (1986), Waking Up: Overcoming the Obstacles to Human Potential (Boston: Shambhala).

Turchin, V. (1977), The Phenomenon of science: A cybernetic approach to human evolution (New York: Columbia University Press).

Metadata

Repository Staff Only: item control page

Cogprints is powered by EPrints 3 which is developed by the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. More information and software credits.