Publications [#357565] of Michael Tomasello

Journal Articles

1. Tomasello, M (2021). Norms Require Not Just Technical Skill and Social Learning, but Real Cooperation. Analyse und Kritik, 43(1), 219-223. [doi]
   (last updated on 2025/05/12)

   Abstract:
   Birch's account of the evolutionary origins of social norms is essentially individualistic. It begins with individuals regulating their own actions toward internally represented goals, as evaluative standards, and adds in a social dimension only secondarily. I argue that a better account begins at the outset with uniquely human collaborative activity in which individuals share evaluative standards about how anyone who would play a given role must behave both toward their joint goal and toward one another. This then scaled up to the shared normative standards for anyone who would be a member of 'our' social group.