In this paper I review some theoretical exchanges and empiricalresults from recent work on human behavior and cognition in thehope of indicating some productive avenues for critical engagement.I focus particular attention on methodological debates between Evolutionary Psychologists and behavioral ecologists. I argue for a broader and more encompassing approach to the evolutionarily based study of human behavior and cognition than either of these two rivals present.

The title “Muscularity of Mind” indicates the point of view that is argued in this essay. I attempt to trace the roots of higher cognitive abilities to the physiological coupling that exists between neuro-sensory and muscular system. Most of the current discourses on the subject base their studies more on the nervous and sensory dimensions, neglecting the most crucial of all, the role of voluntary muscles in shaping the higher cognitive abilities. I make a claim that emancipation of voluntary muscles (...) from the mandatory biological functions to take on the softer habits during the course of evolution played the crucial role in shaping the higher cognitive abilities. I undertake to explain the transition from procedural to declarative representation by hypothesizing that softer operations that are peculiar to higher cognitive agents in the evolutionary order are rooted in the physiological nexus between neuro-sensory and muscular subsystems of the cognitive agent. The objective of this essay is to indicate that the problem cannot be solved without attending to this nexus. (shrink)