Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T07:54:25.515Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Not by signalling alone: Music's mosaicism undermines the search for a proper function

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 September 2021

Anton Killin
Affiliation:
School of Philosophy and ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian National University, Acton, ACT2601, [email protected]
Carl Brusse
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy and Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW2006, [email protected] School of Philosophy, Australian National University, Acton, ACT2601, Australia
Adrian Currie
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Philosophy, University of Exeter, ExeterEX4 4RJ, [email protected]
Ronald J. Planer
Affiliation:
School of Language and Linguistics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria3010, [email protected]

Abstract

Mehr et al. seek to explain music's evolution in terms of a unitary proper function – signalling cooperative intent – which they cash out in two guises, coalition signalling and (allo)parental attention signalling. Although we recognize the role signalling almost certainly played in the evolution of music, we reject “ultimate” causal explanations which focus on a unidirectional, narrow range of causal factors.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Currie, A. (2014). Narratives, mechanisms and progress in historical science. Synthese, 191, 11631183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Currie, A. (2019). Simplicity, one-shot hypotheses and paleobiological explanation. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 41. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-019-0247-0.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Downes, S. M. (2010). The basic components of the human mind were not solidified during the Pleistocene epoch. In Ayala, F. J. & Arp, R. (Eds.), Contemporary debates in philosophy of biology (pp. 243252). Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Killin, A. (2016). Rethinking music's status as adaptation versus technology: A niche construction perspective. Ethnomusicology Forum, 25(2), 210233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Killin, A. (2017). Plio-Pleistocene foundations of musicality: The coevolution of hominin cognition, sociality and music. Biological Theory, 12(4), 222235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Killin, A. (2018a). Music and human evolution: Philosophical aspects. In Joyce, R. (Ed.), Routledge handbook of evolution and philosophy (pp. 372386). Routledge.Google Scholar
Killin, A. (2018b). The origins of music: Evidence, theory, and prospects. Music & Science, 1. https://doi.org/10.1177/2059204317751971.CrossRefGoogle Scholar