Philosopher's disease and its antidote: Perspectives from prenatal behavior and contagious yawning and laughing

When we seek to understand behavior – our own and that of others – we suffer from philosopher's disease: the unnecessary, inappropriate, theoretically driven casting of behavior in terms of higher-order cognitive processes. In these accounts, we often commit the error of intentionality, the over-estimate of our voluntary, conscious control of behavior. The antidote for philosopher's disease and its associated theoretical biases is research based on the natural priorities of organisms that is derived from objective descriptions of behavior. I suggest that we are not very good philosophers and can benefit from the examination of nontraditional sources for insight and guidance, especially prenatal behavior and postnatal contagious behaviors such as yawning and laughing (Provine 2012).

The best place to start the investigation of behavior is at the beginning – prenatal behavior. Early embryos are profoundly unphilosophical and unpsychological beings that start...