The Symbolic Cognition Threshold Hypothesis: A Falsifiable Model of Discontinuity in Human Cognitive Evolution (Preprint)

This paper proposes the Symbolic Cognition Threshold Hypothesis, arguing that Homo sapiens did not emerge through gradual Darwinian transformation but appeared with a sudden leap in recursive symbolic cognition. The model challenges gradualist views of cognitive evolution by presenting recursion as a structural threshold — a tipping point in symbolic capacity that demands narrative closure. This threshold is proposed as the necessary mechanism driving the emergence of symbolic behaviors, belief systems, and human-specific cultural patterns. The hypothesis is presented as falsifiable, offering testable predictions: (1) belief systems and symbolic culture will universally emerge wherever recursion crosses the symbolic threshold; (2) recursion complexity will correlate with symbolic and narrative complexity across cultures; and (3) in the absence of recursion, complex narrative-based explanations of origins will not appear. The paper provides a structured challenge to gradualist evolutionary models and invites interdisciplinary critique from cognitive science, evolutionary anthropology, philosophy of mind, and related fields.