Revolutionary Reductionism

The Cognitive Revolution was made unique as it gave sapiens the ability to communicate in fashions far more complex than any other species or organism on earth. This new thinking trademark was that humans could not think of the impossible and create complex realities that didn’t exist which led us to be able to form new society’s based on religion and the idea of ownership that allowed sapiens to flourish. The next revolution was the Agricultural Revolution which fundamentally changed how the human race lived their lives and gained sustenance. For most of sapiens history we had gained nutrition through hunting and gathering and after the agricultural revolution we could surplus our food and grow the population. The downside to the entire societal change was that humans arguably made their owns lives harder by reducing the amount of free time available for bonding and other socialism.

Harari’s main argument was that homo sapiens became dominant because of their unique ability to problem solve over time which was very helpful for becoming dominant over larger species and large building tasks as sapiens could pass on knowledge about complex ideas from generation to generation. The is also the way that humans could remain superior to the stronger Neanderthals because of our ability to problem solve and the capacity to outnumber the Neanderthals. I think that Harari’s argument was generally sound and relatively persuasive, but I personally think that he might have underestimated how much luck and environment favoured and made it possible for humans to take over the planet. I do however like Harari’s argument that sapiens could progress because homo sapiens could imagine and create complex imaginary hierarchy(Harari,28-30). I hadn’t previously ever thought about the fact that most of what modern society is based on is fake ideas that are solely created by our imaginations over generations and easily believe that this ability certainly aided humanity to ascend above the rest.

1 thought on “Revolutionary Reductionism”

  1. I would agree with most of your findings in the second paragraph for the most part, however, I disagree when you say that I that luck had little to do with humanity and its conquering of nature. Once humanity passed the cognitive revolution humanity had a noticeable advantage over all other species, once that happened the teamwork that humanity had would give them an advantage over all other species. Your other arguments are very sound and they are well thought out. I like how you use Harari in your argument which is great. as a whole I enjoyed your response.

Comments are closed.