Skip to main content

School of Philosophy

  • Home
  • People
  • Events
    • Event series
    • Conferences
      • Past conferences
    • Past events
  • News
    • Audio/Video Recordings
  • Research
  • Study with us
    • Prizes and scholarships
  • Visit us
  • Contact us

Centres & Projects

  • Centre for Consciousness
  • Centre for Moral, Social and Political Theory
  • Centre for Philosophy of the Sciences
  • Humanising Machine Intelligence

Related Sites

  • Research School of Social Sciences
  • ANU College of Arts & Social Sciences

Centre for Consciousness

Related Sites

Centre for Moral, Social and Political Theory

Centre for Philosophy of the Sciences

School of Philosophy

Administrator

Breadcrumb

HomeUpcoming EventsIván González Cabrera (ANU): Bonobos As Model of The Last Common Ancestor of Humans and Apes *Thesis Proposal Review*
Iván González Cabrera (ANU): Bonobos as model of the last common ancestor of humans and apes *Thesis Proposal Review*

Discussions about the evolution of human cognition usually portray the last common ancestor of apes and humans as a chimpanzee-like hominid. This has long been the prevailing view in both the philosophical and biological literature. Such a view has been challenged only by few researchers—most notoriously Adrienne Zihlman and Frans de Waal. For this minority, the bonobo is a mosaic of traits seen in both Pan species. In this paper I will argue that we have reasons for being sceptic about the prevailing view of our last common ancestor, and I will explore a particular version the mosaic model, based on currently available behavioural and neurobiological evidence. If that picture turn out to be correct, I will argue, some evolutionary scenarios that have been provided for the evolution of human cognition would be incorrect. For that reason in the final part of the paper, I will explore some possible consequences for ongoing debates about the evolution of social and moral cognition.

Date & time

  • Tue 09 Apr 2013, 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Location

Coombs Seminar Room B

Event Series

Philsoc seminars