Multiple species drinking at a waterhole                                                                       (credit: Pekandjelo Himufe, via Wikimedia Commons)

                                             (generalization: Game we hunt come here often;                                                                          we can kill game on paths leading to here.)

11. The Human Capacity for Forming Generalizations

These widely useful ideas called ‘generalizations’ deserve some more discussion. A generalization is a statement of what human minds see as a common pattern in many individual experiences. A generalization worth adhering to is one that guides a tribe’s behavior to better survival rates. Thus, it is an app for human brain-computers that helps them to sort sense data and memories of them. Really useful generalizations guide humans to sort incoming sense data quickly and accurately, then come to smart decisions promptly and act in timely ways to exploit opportunities and/or to avoid painful outcomes.

In the real world, once a generalization that works is learned by a tribe, it gives the tribe members guidelines to use to direct action so as to yield more success more often for longer periods of time than was the case for the tribe before they got this programming. If you know where every vertebrate’s heart lies, you can kill more game and so feed your folk. Then, over time, your tribe multiplies.

This whole process of generalization-spotting and behavior-designing does not guarantee its adherents anything on any single hunt. But it does inform their behavior patterns over the long haul in ways that improve their survival odds. It’s arguably the most valuable capacity we, with our minds, have over other animals. We’re better at formulating, using, and passing on, generalizations.  

All living things have at least some capacity to spot patterns in sense experiences and memories of them. Even an amoeba can tell when it must get out of direct sunlight or die. Life is only possible when this ability to categorize and sort sense data, then formulate generalizations, then use these generalizations to guide the creature’s action, is present in a creature via its genes, its culture, or both.

All living things have this aptitude. For most species, it is mostly acquired and passed on genetically. Humans are nimbler at adapting because in addition to an effective gene code, we also have culture.  

We humans can form, test, use, and teach generalizations to generation after generation of our young. To more limited degrees, wolves and chimps can hunt intelligently, and teach their skills to their young, but not with the perseverance, subtlety, or deadly effectiveness that humans do. Rules about hunting are rules for getting rich protein foods reliably. Such rules are precious; our forebears passed them diligently to the next generation for eons. Following this thought, we see our moral values are simply the most general of all our generalizations.

We should also note that our concepts, beliefs, etc. are not all either particular or general. They lie along a continuum from very particular (Memorize this watering hole path) to very general (Love this earth). In addition, the reasons behind them that we’re consciously aware of, and that we give to justify our adhering to them, tend to become more and more mystical/sacred as we move toward the higher generalizability end of this continuum of beliefs/concepts.

 

                                                Doe with fawn (credit: USFWS, via Wikimedia) 

                      Grizzly sow with cubs (credit: Yellowstone NP, US, via Wikimedia)

                            Wolf mother with cub (credit: Bob Haarmans, via Wikimedia)

                       (Generalization: mammal females will fight to protect their young)