Intelligence, from origins to human culture: An eco-evolutionary perspective

The nature of intelligence remains scientifically poorly understood and the subject of many disagreements both biologically and psychologically. Its true form, the nature of its variation and its evolutionary origins remain unclear. The main problem, it is suggested here, is an inadequate grasp of what intelligence is for - due, in turn, to an over-simple, idealized, view of the environmental challenges intelligence evolved to meet. Here, a description of real environmental complexity is advanced, confounding the dominant view of intelligence as a passive, adaptationist, product of evolutionary forces. Through active development, intelligence became the very basis of the origins of life, and then a foundation principle in the evolution of living things, and their complex functions. This unifying perspective is illustrated, from origins of life, through single cell metabolism to human culture.