Awards

• Winner of Eleanor Maccoby Book Award 2020 (United States)
• Winner of PROSE Awards 2020 (United States)
• Winner of William James Book Award 2019 (United States)

Overview

"Winner of the William James Book Award Winner of the Eleanor Maccoby Book Award ""A landmark in our understanding of human development."" -Paul Harris, author of Trusting What You're Told ""Magisterial Makes an impressive argument that most distinctly human traits are established early in childhood and that the general chronology in which these traits appear can be identified."" -Wall Street Journal Virtually all theories of how humans have become such a distinctive species focus on evolution. Becoming Human looks instead to development and reveals how those things that make us unique are constructed during the first seven years of a child's life. In this groundbreaking work, Michael Tomasello draws from three decades of experimental research with chimpanzees, bonobos, and children to propose a new framework for psychological growth between birth and seven years of age. He identifies eight pathways that differentiate humans from their primate relatives: social cognition, communication, cultural learning, cooperative thinking, collaboration, prosociality, social norms, and moral identity. In each of these, great apes possess rudimentary abilities, but the maturation of humans' evolved capacities for shared intentionality transform these abilities into uniquely human cognition and sociality. ""How does human psychological growth run in the first seven years, in particular how does it instill 'culture' in us? Most of all, how does the capacity for shared intentionality and self-regulation evolve in people? This is a very thoughtful and also important book."" -Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution ""Theoretically daring and experimentally ingenious, Becoming Human squarely tackles the abiding question of what makes us human."" -Susan Gelman ""Destined to become a classic. Anyone who is interested in cognitive science, child development, human evolution, or comparative psychology should read this book."" -Andrew Meltzoff"

Full Product Details

9780674248281

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Reviews

Magisterial-merging primatology, developmental psychology, cognitive psychology and evolution...Makes an impressive argument that most distinctly human traits are established early in childhood and that the general chronology in which these traits appear can at least-and at last-be identified. -David P. Barash, Wall Street Journal How does human psychological growth run in the first seven years, in particular how does it instill 'culture' in us? Tomasello addresses this question...by comparing us to chimpanzees and bonobos. Most of all, how does the capacity for shared intentionality and self-regulation evolve in people? This is a very thoughtful and also important book. -Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution An empirically rich view of human uniqueness that is not only informed by developmental psychology but also by cross-cultural and comparative research. Becoming Human is a theory of human origins, but it is first and foremost an attempt to understand the constant unfolding of our nature. -Ivan Gonzalez-Cabrera, History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences Theoretically daring, experimentally ingenious, and astonishingly generative, Becoming Human squarely tackles the abiding question of what makes us human. -Susan Gelman, University of Michigan This grand synthesis of three decades of collaborative research at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig is a landmark in our understanding of human development. -Paul Harris, Harvard University Becoming Human is destined to become a classic. Anyone who is interested in cognitive science, child development, human evolution, or comparative psychology should read this book. It surely would have provoked a letter from Darwin-an intellectual ancestor, along with Vygotsky, of this scientific masterpiece. -Andrew Meltzoff, University of Washington This is a must-read from a thinker who has had a major hand in our current understanding of the genealogy of human uniqueness and character. -Henry Wellman, University of Michigan

This is a must-read from a thinker who has had a major hand in our current understanding of the genealogy of human uniqueness and character. -- Henry Wellman, University of Michigan Becoming Human is destined to become a classic. Anyone who is interested in cognitive science, child development, human evolution, or comparative psychology should read this book. It surely would have provoked a letter from Darwin-an intellectual ancestor, along with Vygotsky, of this scientific masterpiece. -- Andrew Meltzoff, University of Washington This grand synthesis of three decades of collaborative research at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig is a landmark in our understanding of human development. -- Paul Harris, Harvard University Theoretically daring, experimentally ingenious, and astonishingly generative, Becoming Human squarely tackles the abiding question of what makes us human. -- Susan Gelman, University of Michigan How does human psychological growth run in the first seven years, in particular how does it instill 'culture' in us? Tomasello addresses this question...by comparing us to chimpanzees and bonobos. Most of all, how does the capacity for shared intentionality and self-regulation evolve in people? This is a very thoughtful and also important book. -- Tyler Cowen * Marginal Revolution * Magisterial-merging primatology, developmental psychology, cognitive psychology and evolution...Makes an impressive argument that most distinctly human traits are established early in childhood and that the general chronology in which these traits appear can at least-and at last-be identified. -- David P. Barash * Wall Street Journal *

Magisterial-merging primatology, developmental psychology, cognitive psychology and evolution...Makes an impressive argument that most distinctly human traits are established early in childhood and that the general chronology in which these traits appear can at least-and at last-be identified. -- David P. Barash * Wall Street Journal * How does human psychological growth run in the first seven years, in particular how does it instill 'culture' in us? Tomasello addresses this question...by comparing us to chimpanzees and bonobos. Most of all, how does the capacity for shared intentionality and self-regulation evolve in people? This is a very thoughtful and also important book. -- Tyler Cowen * Marginal Revolution * An empirically rich view of human uniqueness that is not only informed by developmental psychology but also by cross-cultural and comparative research. Becoming Human is a theory of human origins, but it is first and foremost an attempt to understand the constant unfolding of our nature. -- Ivan Gonzalez-Cabrera * History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences * Theoretically daring, experimentally ingenious, and astonishingly generative, Becoming Human squarely tackles the abiding question of what makes us human. -- Susan Gelman, University of Michigan This grand synthesis of three decades of collaborative research at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig is a landmark in our understanding of human development. -- Paul Harris, Harvard University Becoming Human is destined to become a classic. Anyone who is interested in cognitive science, child development, human evolution, or comparative psychology should read this book. It surely would have provoked a letter from Darwin-an intellectual ancestor, along with Vygotsky, of this scientific masterpiece. -- Andrew Meltzoff, University of Washington This is a must-read from a thinker who has had a major hand in our current understanding of the genealogy of human uniqueness and character. -- Henry Wellman, University of Michigan

Author Information

Michael Tomasello is Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University. From 1998 to 2018 he was Co-Director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, and in 2017 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His scientific work has been recognized by institutions around the world, including the Guggenheim Foundation, the British Academy, the Royal Academy of Netherlands, and the German National Academy of Sciences.

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