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Advancing paleoanthropology beyond default nulls

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 January 2025

Matteo Bedetti  and
Colin Allen Open the ORCID record for Colin Allen [Opens in a new window]
Matteo Bedetti
Affiliation:
Department of Pure and Applied Sciences, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Urbino, Italy [email protected]
Colin Allen*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA [email protected] https://colinallen.dnsalias.org/
*
*Corresponding author.
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Abstract

While we are sympathetic with Stibbard-Hawkes’ approach, we disagree with the proposal to switch to a “cognitively modern” null for all Homo species. We argue in favor of a more evidence-driven approach, inspired by recent debates in comparative cognition. Ultimately, parsing the contributions of different genetic and extra-genetic factors in human evolution is more promising than setting a priori nulls.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 48 , 2025 , e3
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press

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