Introducing the Instrumental Motivations

Abstract

The vast material culture we humans have created is one of our most distinguishing characteristics of our species. It’s born from our forward-thinking imagination and our inextinguishable curiosity and is carried aloft by our aptitude with the tools we make and use. While the ability to use rudimentary tools is now understood to be shared by some other primates (and a sea otter or two), the distance between using a stick to pry termites from a nest and using scalpels and balloons to transplant a beating human heart highlights the uniqueness of our human ability to create and shape our world.