Müller, Basil (2024) Coordination in Social Learning: Expanding the Narrative on the Evolution of Social Norms. [Preprint]

Text EvoEN Preprint.docx Download (182kB)

Abstract

A shared narrative in the literature on the evolution of cooperation maintains that social learning evolves early to allow for the transmission of cumulative culture. Social norms, whilst present at the outset, only rise to prominence later on, mainly to stabilise cooperation against the threat of defection.
In contrast, I argue that once we consider insights from social epistemology, an expansion of this narrative presents itself: An interesting kind of social norm — an epistemic coordination norm — was operative in early and important instances of specialised social learning. I show how there’s a need for such norms in two key social learning strategies and explain how this need is constituted. In assessor-teaching (e.g. Castro et al. 2019; 2021), epistemic coordination norms allow agents to coordinate around the content of social learning, i.e., what is to be known and how this is to be done. These norms also allow agents to coordinate around the form of cultural learning in what’s sometimes called strategic social learning (Laland 2004; Hoppitt and Laland 2013; Heyes 2018, chap. 5) and elsewhere. Broadly speaking, this concerns how cultural learning is organised within the social group. The upshot is that the evolution of social learning and social norms are intertwined in important and underappreciated ways from early on.
The above matters as it informs our views about the evolution of social norms more generally. Truly social norms emerged to coordinate a plurality of complex behaviours and interactions, amongst them specialised social learning. I substantiate this view by contrasting it with Jonathan Birch’s views on the evolution of norms. What results is a general but cohesive narrative on the early evolution of social norms.

---

Export/Citation:

EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL

Social Networking:

Share |

---

Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Müller, Basil basilmueller@gmail.com 0000-0001-5021-1576
Keywords:	Social Norms, Cooperation, Social Learning, Epistemic Norms, Normative Cognition, Coordination
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Archaeology Specific Sciences > Psychology > Evolutionary Psychology Specific Sciences > Cultural Evolution
Depositing User:	Mr. Basil Müller
Date Deposited:	22 Apr 2024 22:57
Last Modified:	22 Apr 2024 22:57
Item ID:	23311
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Archaeology Specific Sciences > Psychology > Evolutionary Psychology Specific Sciences > Cultural Evolution
Date:	2024
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/23311

Monthly Views for the past 3 years

Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years

Plum Analytics

Actions (login required)

View Item