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The Social Brain

Sociological Foundations
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The Social Brain: Sociological Foundations introduces the concept of the social brain, including a detailed conceptual model of the social brain networked in the world. The idea that our brains are social has its roots in nineteenth-century social thought and primate research initiated in the 1950s. It was introduced into the neuroscience literature in 1990 as a challenge to the traditional view of the isolated bio-medical brain, a view that still dominates the scientific, media, and public imaginations. Sal Restivo's foundational thesis is that humans arrive on the evolutionary stage always, already, and everywhere social. We have social selves, social brains, and social genes. He argues the "I" is a grammatical illusion reflecting the myth of individualism. The unique feature of this book is the amount of space devoted to constructing the sociological scaffolding needed to understand what the author means by the social self, the social mind, and the social brain. The approach leads to new ways of thinking about socialization, consciousness, and creativity as networked phenomena. The result is a novel way of integrating the social self, the biological self, and the neurological self and erasing the classical boundaries between brain, mind, and body.
Sal Restivo is a retired sociologist/anthropologist, a founding member and former president of the Society for Social Studies of Sciences, and the editor-in-chief of Oxford's Science, Technology, and Society: An Encyclopedia (2005).
Contents Acknowledgments List of Figures Preface: Caveat Emptor Introduction Chapter 1. The Sociological Imagination Chapter 2. Sociology Comes into View Chapter 3. Evolution Invents the Social Chapter 4. Individual and Society Chapter 5. The Social Body in Society and Politics Chapter 6. Genius Incorporated Chapter 7. Improvisation Incorporated Chapter 8. From The Matrix to Reality: Are We Brains in Vats, Simulations, or Brains in the World? Chapter 9. Robots, AI, Brains, and Bodies in the Information Age Chapter 10. The Sociology of Consciousness Chapter 11. The Social Life of the Brain Chapter 12. The Social Brain in Health and Illness Chapter 13. Final Considerations: Brain, Society, and Sociology Bibliography About the Author
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