Cognitive Adaptation‎:‎ A Pragmatist Perspective argues that there is a fundamental link between cognitive/neural systems and evolution that underlies human activity‎.‎ One important result is that the line between nature and culture and scientific and humanistic inquiry is quite permeable ‎- the two are fairly continuous with each other‎.‎ Two concepts figure importantly in our human ascent‎:‎ agency and animacy‎.‎ The first is the recognition of another person as having beliefs‎,‎ desires‎,‎ and a sense of experience‎.‎ The second term is the recognition of an object as alive‎,‎ a piece of biology‎.‎ Both reflect a predilection in our cognitive architecture that is fundamental to an evolving‎,‎ but fragile‎,‎ sense of humanity‎.‎ The book further argues for a regulative norm of self‎-corrective inquiry‎,‎ an appreciation of the hypothetical nature of all knowledge‎.‎ Schulkin‎'‎s perspective is rooted in contemporary behavioral and cognitive neuroscience‎.‎