A GENERAL-MODEL FOR THE ADAPTIVE FUNCTION OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE IN ANIMALS AND HUMANS

This article offers a general definition of self-knowledge that embrac es all forms and levels of self-knowledge in animals and humans. It is hypothesized that various levels of self-knowledge constitute an ordi nal scale such that each species in a lineage displays the forms of se lf-knowledge found in related species as well as new forms it and its sister species may have evolved. Likewise, it is hypothesized that the se various forms of levels of self-knowledge develop in the sequence i n which they evolved. Finally, a general hypothesis for the functional significance of self-knowledge is proposed along with subhypotheses r egarding the adaptive significance of various levels of self-knowledge in mammals including human and nonhuman primates. The general hypothe sis is that self-knowledge serves as a standard for assessing the qual ities of conspecifics compared to those of the self. Such assessment i s crucial to deciding among alternative reproductive and subsistence s trategies. The qualities that are assessed, which vary across taxa, ra nge from the size and strength of the self to its mathematical or musi cal abilities. This so-called assessment model of self-knowledge is ba sed on evolutionary biological models for social selection and the rol e of assessment in animal communication. (C) 1997 Academic Press.