Hauser Marc
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
Nature. 2005 Sep 1;437(7055):60-3. doi: 10.1038/nature03917.
Some might consider the title of this piece preposterous. Bishop Wilberforce would no doubt have shaken his fist at it, just as he disputed Huxley's championing of darwinian continuity. But the title of this essay is no more outrageous than one entitled 'The chimpanzee's bird brain', for there has been extensive evolutionary conservation of many neural and psychological functions across species. We share with chimpanzees some--but not all--mental functions, some of which are shared with other species as well. As the publication of the chimpanzee genome reveals, we also share a good deal of our DNA. Unfortunately, we are virtually in the dark when it comes to understanding how genes build minds. If comparative genomics is to enlighten our understanding of human origins, it must be accompanied by an equally rich description of animal psychology, both in terms of its underlying neural signatures and the evolutionary processes that led to convergence and divergence with other species.
有些人可能认为这篇文章的标题荒谬至极。威尔伯福斯主教无疑会对此挥舞拳头，就像他曾质疑赫胥黎对达尔文连续性的支持一样。但这篇文章的标题并不比《黑猩猩的鸟脑》更离谱，因为跨物种存在许多神经和心理功能的广泛进化保守性。我们与黑猩猩共享一些——但并非全部——心理功能，其中一些也与其他物种共享。正如黑猩猩基因组的公布所揭示的，我们还共享大量的DNA。不幸的是，在理解基因如何构建心智方面，我们几乎一无所知。如果比较基因组学要增进我们对人类起源的理解，就必须同时对动物心理学进行同样丰富的描述，包括其潜在的神经特征以及导致与其他物种趋同和分化的进化过程。
