We are all guided by thousands of norms, but how did our capacity for normative cognition evolve? I propose there is a deep but neglected link between normative cognition and practical skill. In modern humans, complex motor skills and craft skills, such as toolmaking, are guided by internally represented norms of correct performance. Moreover, it is plausible that core components of human normative cognition evolved as a solution to the distinctive problems of transmitting complex motor skills and craft skills, especially skills related to toolmaking, through social learning. If this is correct, the expansion of the normative domain beyond technique to encompass more abstract norms of fairness, reciprocity, ritual and kinship involved the elaboration of a basic platform for the guidance of skilled action by technical norms. This article motivates and defends this “skill hypothesis” for the origin of normative cognition and sets out various ways in which it could be empirically tested.

中文翻译：

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工具制造与规范认知的演变

我们都受到数以千计的规范的指导，但我们的规范认知能力是如何演变的？我认为在规范认知和实践技能之间存在一种深刻但被忽视的联系。在现代人类中，复杂的运动技能和工艺技能（例如工具制造）受内部表现的正确表现规范的指导。此外，人类规范认知的核心成分进化为解决通过社会学习传递复杂运动技能和工艺技能，尤其是与工具制造相关的技能的独特问题的解决方案是合理的。如果这是正确的，规范领域的扩展超越了技术，包括公平、互惠、仪式和亲属关系等更抽象的规范，这涉及制定技术规范指导熟练行为的基本平台。