[New Entry by Cameron Buckner on December 5, 2024.]
Nonhuman animals have long been seen as a crucial source of evidence regarding the nature and origins of human social capacities, such as communication, deception, culture, technology, politics, and morality. Humans distinctively excel at these forms of sociality, which led theorists in many disciplines to hypothesize that humans possess unique adaptations facilitating advanced social cognition. Many of these social activities presume an ability to attribute mental states such as perceptions, beliefs, and desires to other social agents,…

Read the full article which is published on Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (external link)