Objectify and Commit: How Reasons Bring About Cultural Change and Progress

Abstract Humans are uniquely reasoning animals as they are the only species who produce and evaluate reasons. Reasons bring about cultural change and even progress in the sense that they lead to increasingly better solutions to our epistemic, moral, and societal problems. It remains unclear, however, how the micro-level process of reasoning causes these macro-scale effects. By tying together several theoretical strands, including the interactionist theory of reasoning, cultural epidemiology, epistemic vigilance, partner choice theory, and theories about commitment, this paper aims to shed light on the causal process involved. More specifically, three points will be argued for: first, argumentation is not just a social but also a cultural phenomenon; second, objectifying reasons stand a bigger chance of becoming cultural arguments than others, and third, these objectified reasons create new commitments that bring about cultural change and, in some conditions, progress. The examples of morality and science will illustrate this process.