About me

I’m a cognitive scientist and philosopher.

Humans are similar to other great apes in many ways. Yet the few differences that do exist combine to generate social and cultural systems: Languages, symbols, technologies, institutions, democracies and more. How and why does this happen? And why humans? These are the big questions that shape my research, teaching and thinking.

I have a permanent research fellowship funded by Ikerbasque, the Basque Foundation for Science. I’ve previously held fellowships and senior research positions in Linguistics (Edinburgh), Anthropology (Durham) and Cognitive Psychology (Central European University).

https://www.thomscottphillips.com/

This substack

Short essays about big ideas that help me understand the world. Many are about the cognitive and evolutionary foundations of human society, but I also have things to say about jazz, politics, urban design, film and literature.

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