Ch. 2

When we talked in class last week about Tomasello's claim that humans are unique in their ability to recognize other humans as "like" them, I had a hard time wrapping my mind around the idea. Then, I read chapter 2 and I think it might be a little clearer. Tomasello provides a list of cognitive skills common to all mammals and the first one on the list is, "Recognize individuals in their social groups." I think when I was thinking about animals other than humans recognizing others of the same species, I think I ignored an important distinction. Other animals, especially mammals, need to be able to recognize those of the same species for mating and social purposes. The example I was thinking of was when a female will want to mate with the most physically impressive male of the group. She has to "know" in a way that she is supposed to mate with him and not, say, an individual from another species. Still, I think the distinction is that though she recognizes she must mate with him, which could just be something she knows innately, she does not recognize he is "like" her. 

This got me to thinking about what it means to have a sense of someone being "like" yourself. I'm not entirely sure, because Tomasello did not discuss it really, but it seems to me it would need to involve having a sense of self. Animals most likely know they exist in a way, but they do not know what makes them who they are. A dog does not know it's a dog because of all it's characteristics and then see those characteristics in another and recognize that individual as another dog. This might not be exactly what he's claiming, but this is how I understood it.