Machiavellian Intelligence
Social Expertise and the Evolution of Intellect in Monkeys, Apes, and Humans
Published on 14. July 1988
Book
Paperback/Softback
430 pages
978-0-19-852175-4 (ISBN)
Description
According to conventional wisdom, our unique human intellect results from evolutionary pressures for skilled tool use and for communication to enhance co-operation. This book explores a quite different idea: that the driving force was social expertise, allowing subtle manipulation of others within the social group. The need to outwit one's clever colleagues then produces an evolutionary spiralling of `Machiavellian intelligence'.
This book forms a complete and self-contained text on this topic, including the origins of the idea, a wealth of exciting applications in anthropology, psychology, and zoology, and a current evaluation of more traditional ideas --to what extent is Machiavellian intelligence complementary or alternative to them? With contributions by an international team of authors, the reader is brought to the frontiers of scientific work on the origin of human intellect.
This book forms a complete and self-contained text on this topic, including the origins of the idea, a wealth of exciting applications in anthropology, psychology, and zoology, and a current evaluation of more traditional ideas --to what extent is Machiavellian intelligence complementary or alternative to them? With contributions by an international team of authors, the reader is brought to the frontiers of scientific work on the origin of human intellect.
Reviews / Votes
'A highly cohesive book that will serve as an excellent introduction to social intelligence.' Nature 'By adding a few connecting chapters of their own in which they set out the issues clearly, they have created a highly cohesive book that will serve as an excellent introduction to social intelligence.'Nature February 1989 '.. an exceptionally important collection, of papers.' The Psychologist `.. this book will surely become a standard point of departure for future work.' THES `This book will be read and appreciated for two reasons. The first is that it raises or enhances our intellectual curiosity both about the evolution of social knowledge and about how social knowledge itself evolves. By so doing, the authors compel us to adjust our thinking about evolution and behaviour. The second is that it presents a novel and engaging format that teaches the reader.' Contemporary Psychology USAMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Oxford University Press
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
numerous figures
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
652 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-852175-4 (9780198521754)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Content
Andrew Whiten & Richard Byrne: Editorial: The Machiavellian intelligence hypotheses; THE ORIGINS OF THE IDEA: Nicholas Humphrey: The social function of intellect; Alison Jolly: Lemur social behaviour and primate intelligence; Michael Chance & Allan Mead: Social behaviour and primate evolution; Andrew Whiten & Richard Byrne: Editorial: Taking (Machiavellian) intelligence apart; WHAT PRIMATES KNOW ABOUT SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS: Robert Seyfarth & Dorothy Cheney: Do monkeys understand their relationships?; Verena Dasser: Mapping social concepts in monkeys; Peter Smith: The cognitive demands of children's social interactions with peers; SOCIAL COMPLEXITY: THE EFFECT OF A THIRD PARTY: Hans Kummer: Tripartite relations in hamadryas baboons; Frans de Waal: Chimpanzee politics; Alexander Harcourt: Alliances in contests and social intelligence; ARE PRIMATES MIND-READERS?: Emil Menzel: A group of chimpanzees in a one-acre field: leadership and communication; David Premack: 'Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind' revisited; Daniel Dennett: The intentional stance in theory and practice; DECEPTION: Richard Byrne & Andrew Whiten: Tactical deception of familiar individuals in baboons; Andrew Whiten & Richard Byrne: The manipulation of attention in primate tactical deception; Sue Savage-Rumbaugh & Kelly McDonald: Deception and social manipulation in symbol-using apes; Peter LaFreniere: The ontogeny of tactical deception in humans; SOCIAL OR NON-SOCIAL ORIGINS OF INTELLIGENCE? Dorothy Cheney & Robert Seyfarth: Social and non-social knowledge in vervet monkeys; Thomas Wynn: Tools and the evolution of human intelligence; Katherine Milton: Foraging behaviour and the evolution of primate cognition; EXPLOITING THE EXPERTISE OF OTHERS: Eduard Stammbach: An experimental study of social knowledge: adaptation to the special manipulative skills of single individuals in a Macaca fascicularis group; Marc Hauser: Invention and social transmission: new data from wild vervet monkeys; TAKING STOCK: John Crook: The experiential context of intellect; Alison Jolly: The evolution of purpose; References; Index.