Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
The obvious, common sense purposes listed in Fig. 2.7a are certainly found in
the world's major religions and help people cope with suffering, especially illness.
Before the real causes of human disease started to be identified some 150 years ago,
people often interpreted illness as punishment for flouting the will of a deity, so they
would plead with their deity for relief. Humans are also probably the only species
that are aware they are going to die and they often fear what may lie beyond. Most
people grieve when they lose their loved ones and like to believe that their person-
alities survive in some sense after death. However, anthropologists such as Pascal
Boyer point out that there are many thousands of minor supernatural beliefs where
these obvious, common sense explanations do not always apply, so they suppose
there must be some deeper underlying reasons for supernatural beliefs, related to
how the cognitive systems in the human brain interpret the world.
Fig. 2.7
One plausible suggestion is what is called intentionality
,
sometimes called the
“theory of mind” (Fig. 2.7b).
Intentionality is the ability of humans and some other animals to treat other
objects and animals as agents like themselves, that is, agents with minds that have
desires, beliefs and intentions. Each time you have a conversation, you adopt an
intentional stance towards the other person - you make assumptions about their
desires, beliefs and intentions because you believe the other person is an active agent
like yourself with a mind like yours. The other person is making similar assump-
tions about you. The term “adopting the intentional stance” was suggested by the
philosopher Daniel Dennett.
Adopting the intentional stance is clearly an important survival tactic for ani-
mals, especially for social animals like ourselves, whose success improves if we
