ABSTRACT
According to the assumptions and their sequelae described in Chapter 1, the structures and functions of cognitive ability originate in the genes. Even when interactions with the environment are referred to, the genes seem to retain their status as the head of a ‘line management’ in the assembly of human characters. These origins have been built up by selection forces acting on initially random variations. And the structures and functions within them are thus stable, fixed, adaptations to an equally stable set of environmental conditions (the accessibility and form of food; the activity of predators; particular kinds of physical problems, or social demands).
