Convergent? Minds? Some questions about mental evolution

Convergent? Minds? Some questions about mental evolution.

In investigating convergent minds, we need to be sure that the things we are looking at are both minds and convergent. In determining whether a shared character state represents a convergence between two organisms, we must know the wider distribution and primitive state of that character so that we can map that character and its state transitions onto a phylogenetic tree. When we do this, some ...

Some Questions About The Evolution of Morality

Richard Joyce has written an admirable book, brimming over with fascinating findings, bold empirical hypotheses and philosophical arguments that are both innovative and provocative, all set out in a straightforward, engaging style. One of the virtues of this journal’s book symposia that they give commentators an opportunity to ask questions that authors can address in their responses. But sympo...

Some unanswered questions about vaccination.

I pondered for several months over what I should write for this 100th Volume of FEMS Microbiology Letters before deciding that it might be useful to pose some questions about vaccination for which there seem to be no adequate answers. Although I have put these questions verbally to colleagues over several years, I thought that by putting the same questions in writing, it would not only help to ...

Convergent minds: the evolution of cognitive complexity in nature

Potent questions about cannabis and mental health.