The Agent Intellect and Cognitive Abilities in Human Beings During the Lower Paleolithic

Abstract

Two different processes are found in human evolution: the process of hominization and the process of humanization (Jordana, 1988, p. 97) (Polo, 2016, p.9). The first refers to the morphological changes that culminate in H sapiens and the second refers to the cultural achievements. Until the end of the last century it was thought that cultural achievements of hominid types such as Australopithecines, H. habilis and H. erectus obeyed to sensitive knowledge, specifically the cognitive operation of the imagination which does not require the abstraction to think in a sensory way. Intellectual thought was only recognized in H. sapiens including the archaic H. sapiens because of the symbolic meaning associated with works and behaviours such as rock art and burials. Sensitive knowledge refers to the imaginative association and the use of the most rudimentary conditional reasoning: if A then B (Polo, 2016, p. 17). However, the discoveries in experimental archaeology of the last two decades claim abstract knowledge for the manufacture of the oldest stone tools known which date to 3.3 million years ago (Byrne, 2018, in press) (Harman et al, 2015, p. 310). What philosophical validity have these archaeological advances? How are such recent advances integrated into Polo's transcendental anthropology? This article is a brief answer to these questions.