EVOLUTIONARY EXPLANATIONS OF COGNITIVE COMPLEXITY
EVOLUTIONARY EXPLANATIONS OF COGNITIVE COMPLEXITY

Summary/Abstract: In the present paper I focus on one issue that may be considered problematic from a philosophical point of view: are there any analytical laws in the formulation of evolutionary explanations, and if yes, how do they work? In order to address the topic, I chose to discuss a particular kind of evolutionary explanations. During the recent decades we have witnessed a living debate around theories concerning cognitive evolution, a debate that has brought the analytic-synthetic distinction back into focus. It seems that not all the complex aspects of evolved cognitive processes can be explained empirically or synthetically, i.e. by invoking natural selection only. In this paper, I argue that if we are to pay any attention to evolutionary explanations of cognitive complexity at all, then cognitive explanations must accommodate at least one analytical law.

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