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5Illustration CreditsIn Dan Sperber & Hugo Mercier (eds.), The Enigma of Reason, Harvard University Press. pp. 385-386. 2017.
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93. From Unconscious Inferences to IntuitionsIn Dan Sperber & Hugo Mercier (eds.), The Enigma of Reason, Harvard University Press. pp. 51-67. 2017.
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5FrontmatterIn Dan Sperber & Hugo Mercier (eds.), The Enigma of Reason, Harvard University Press. 2017.
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128. Could Reason Be a Module?In Dan Sperber & Hugo Mercier (eds.), The Enigma of Reason, Harvard University Press. pp. 128-147. 2017.
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75. Cognitive OpportunismIn Dan Sperber & Hugo Mercier (eds.), The Enigma of Reason, Harvard University Press. pp. 76-89. 2017.
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6Conclusion: In Praise of Reason after AllIn Dan Sperber & Hugo Mercier (eds.), The Enigma of Reason, Harvard University Press. pp. 328-336. 2017.
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20ContentsIn Dan Sperber & Hugo Mercier (eds.), The Enigma of Reason, Harvard University Press. 2017.
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1014. A Reason for EverythingIn Dan Sperber & Hugo Mercier (eds.), The Enigma of Reason, Harvard University Press. pp. 251-261. 2017.
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36Conference on evolution and the human sciencesStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 23 (4): 699-700. 1991.
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222Relevance: Communication and CognitionBlackwell. 1986/1995.This revised edition includes a new Preface outlining developments in Relevance Theory since 1986, discussing the more serious criticisms of the theory, and ...
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17A Forward Bias in Human Profile‐Oriented PortraitsCognitive Science 44 (6). 2020.The spatial composition of human portraits obeys historically changing cultural norms. We show that it is also affected by cognitive factors that cause greater spontaneous attention to what is in front rather in the back of an agent. Scenes with more space in front of a directed object are both more often produced and judged as more aesthetically pleasant. This leads to the prediction that, in profile‐oriented human portraits, compositions with more space in front of depicted agents (a “forward …Read more
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27¿Porqué razonan los humanos?Cuadernos Filosóficos / Segunda Época 15. 2019.Reasoning is generally seen as a means to improve knowledge and make better decisions. However, much evidence shows that reasoning often leads to epistemic distortions and poor decisions. This suggests that the function of reasoning should be rethought. Our hypothesis is that the function of reasoning is argumentative. It is to devise and evaluate arguments intended to persuade. Reasoning so conceived is adaptive given the exceptional dependence of humans on communication and their vulnerability…Read more
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28Instincts or gadgets? Not the debate we should be havingBehavioral and Brain Sciences 42. 2019.I argue, with examples, that most human cognitive skills are neither instincts nor gadgets but mechanisms shaped both by evolved dispositions and by cultural inputs. This shaping can work either through evolved skills fulfilling their function with the help of cultural skills that they contribute to shape, or through cultural skills recruiting evolved skills and adjusting to them.
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PragmaticsIn Frank Jackson & Michael Smith (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Philosophy, Oxford University Press. 2005.
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50The role of attraction in cultural evolutionJournal of Cognition and Culture 7 (1-2): 89-111. 2007.Henrich and Boyd (2002) were the first to propose a formal model of the role of attraction in cultural evolution. They came to the surprising conclusion that, when both attraction and selection are at work, final outcomes are determined by selection alone. This result is based on a deterministic view of cultural attraction, different from the probabilistic view introduced in Sperber (1996). We defend this probabilistic view, show how to model it, and argue that, when both attraction and selectio…Read more
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118Truthfulness and Relevance in Telling The TimeMind and Language 17 (5): 457-466. 2002.Someone asked ‘What time is it?’ when her watch reads 3:08 is likely to answer ‘It is 3:10.’ We argue that a fundamental factor that explains such rounding is a psychological disposition to give an answer that, while not necessarily strictly truthful or accurate, is an optimally relevant one (in the sense of relevance theory) i.e. an answer from which hearers can derive the consequences they care about with minimal effort. A rounded answer is easier to process and may carry the same consequences…Read more
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9IX*—Loose TalkProceedings of the Aristotelian Society 86 (1): 153-172. 1986.Dan Sperber, Deirdre Wilson; IX*—Loose Talk, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 86, Issue 1, 1 June 1986, Pages 153–172, https://doi.org/10.1093/ar.
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3Metarepresentations in an evolutionary perspective in SperberIn Dan Sperber (ed.), Metarepresentations: A Multidisciplinary Perspective, Oxford University Press. 2000.
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65Speakers are honest because hearers are vigilant reply to kourken MichaelianEpisteme 10 (1): 61-71. 2013.In Kourken Michaelian questions the basic tenets of our article (Sperber et al. 2010). Here I defend against Michaelian's criticisms the view that epistemic vigilance plays a major role in explaining the evolutionary stability of communication and that the honesty of speakers and the reliability of their testimony are, to a large extent, an effect of hearers' vigilance
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45Culturally transmitted misbeliefsBehavioral and Brain Sciences 32 (6): 534-535. 2009.Most human beliefs are acquired through communication, and so are most misbeliefs. Just like the misbeliefs discussed by McKay & Dennett (M&D), culturally transmitted misbeliefs tend to result from limitations rather than malfunctions of the mechanisms that produce them, and few if any can be argued to be adaptations. However, the mechanisms involved, the contents, and the hypothetical adaptive value tend to be specific to the cultural case.
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70Précis of Relevance: Communication and CognitionIn Maite Ezcurdia & Robert J. Stainton (eds.), The Semantics-Pragmatics Boundary in Philosophy, Broadview Press. pp. 220. 2013.
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222Truthfulness and relevanceMind 111 (443): 583-632. 2002.This paper questions the widespread view that verbal communication is governed by a maxim, norm or convention of truthfulness which applies at the level of what is literally meant, or what is said. Pragmatic frameworks based on this view must explain the frequent occurrence and acceptability of loose and figurative uses of language. We argue against existing explanations of these phenomena and provide an alternative account, based on the assumption that verbal communication is governed not by ex…Read more
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59In two experiments, we investigated whether 13-month-old infants expect agents to behave in a way consistent with information to which they have been exposed. Infants watched animations in which an animal was either provided information or prevented from gathering information about the actual location of an object. The animal then searched successfully or failed to retrieve it. Infants’ looking times suggest that they expected searches to be effective when—and only when—the agent had had access …Read more
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60not only anomalous animals, but also exemplary animals often take on a symbolic value, thus raising a second problem. A solution to both problems is suggested, based on an examination of the cognitive..