Search Results

The Social Brain

Nikolas Rose and Joelle M. Abi-Rached

in Neuro: The New Brain Sciences and the Management of the Mind

This chapter looks at the social brain hypothesis. The term social brain has come to stand for the argument that the human brain, and indeed that of some other animals, is specialized for a ... More

This chapter looks at the social brain hypothesis. The term social brain has come to stand for the argument that the human brain, and indeed that of some other animals, is specialized for a collective form of life. One part of this argument is evolutionary: that the size and complexity of the brains of primates, including humans, are related to the size and complexity of their characteristic social groups. However, the social brain hypothesis is more than a general account of the role of brain size: for in this thesis, the capacities for sociality are neurally located in a specific set of brain regions shaped by evolution, notably the amygdala, orbital frontal cortex, and temporal cortex—regions that have the function of facilitating an understanding of what one might call the “mental life” of others.Less

Summary

Herbert Gintis

in The Bounds of Reason: Game Theory and the Unification of the Behavioral Sciences

This chapter summarizes the book's main points, covering game theory, the commonality of beliefs, the limits of rationality, social norms as correlated equilibria, and how reason is bounded by ... More

This chapter summarizes the book's main points, covering game theory, the commonality of beliefs, the limits of rationality, social norms as correlated equilibria, and how reason is bounded by sociality, not irrationality. Among the conclusions are that game theory is an indispensable tool in modeling human behavior. Behavioral disciplines that reject or peripheralize game theory are theoretically handicapped. The Nash equilibrium is not the appropriate equilibrium concept for social theory. The correlated equilibrium is the appropriate equilibrium concept for a set of rational individuals having common priors. Social norms are correlated equilibria. The behavioral disciplines today have four incompatible models of human behavior. The behavioral sciences must develop a unified model of choice that eliminates these incompatibilities and that can be specialized in different ways to meet the heterogeneous needs of the various disciplines.Less

Communication in social networks of territorial animals: networking at different levels in birds and other systems

Giuliano Matessi, Ricardo J. Matos, and Torben Dabelsteen

in Sociobiology of Communication: an interdisciplinary perspective

Communication allows individuals to share information and plays a central role in determining animal social behaviour. Animals live in social networks of multiple individuals connected by links ... More

Communication allows individuals to share information and plays a central role in determining animal social behaviour. Animals live in social networks of multiple individuals connected by links representing different interaction types. Signalling interactions form the base of the communication network (i.e., all conspecifics within signalling range) experienced by an individual and are particularly important for information exchange. Looking at interactions within a network has helped identify and explain the diverse signalling and receiving strategies adopted by animals, and may likewise help explain other social interactions. This chapter presents a network model which integrates the concepts of communication and social network. It illustrates how this model can affect information exchange in animal communities with different social structures and ecologies. Finally, it presents some concrete examples of the questions that arise and can be answered when looking at the behavioural ecology of birds from a network perspective.Less

Introduction

James H. Hunt

in The Evolution of Social Wasps

This introductory chapter begins with a description of the Order Hymenoptera. It then discusses the rationale behind the book's focus on the wasp family Vespidae. An overview of the subsequent ... More

This introductory chapter begins with a description of the Order Hymenoptera. It then discusses the rationale behind the book's focus on the wasp family Vespidae. An overview of the subsequent chapters is presented.Less

Language unbound: genomic conflict and psychosis in the origin of modern humans

Bernard J Crespi

in Sociobiology of Communication: an interdisciplinary perspective

Human social communication is impaired in the two primary disorders of the ‘social brain’, autism, and schizophrenia. This chapter describes a new hypothesis for the role of language in the evolution ... More

Human social communication is impaired in the two primary disorders of the ‘social brain’, autism, and schizophrenia. This chapter describes a new hypothesis for the role of language in the evolution and development of autism and schizophrenia: that the cores of these two conditions are disordered social communication, with dysregulated social-linguistic development mediated in part by extremes of bias in maternal vs paternal imprinted gene expression, resulting in extreme mentalistic vs extreme mechanistic cognition. It evaluates this hypothesis via tests of the molecular evolution of genes underlying schizophrenia and language, analyses of how the human social brain has evolved, and evaluation of the roles of genomic conflicts in human development, enculturation, and communication via study of the genetic and epigenetic underpinnings of social-brain disorders. These convergent lines of evidence from evolutionary theory and neurogenomics support the hypothesis that psychosis represents the ‘illness that made us human’.Less

Illness as Work: Human Market Transition

Adriana Petryna

in Life Exposed: Biological Citizens after Chernobyl

This chapter examines the “epidemic” of disability in post-Soviet Ukraine, and more specifically how state laws on the social protection of Chernobyl sufferers have turned suffering and disability ... More

This chapter examines the “epidemic” of disability in post-Soviet Ukraine, and more specifically how state laws on the social protection of Chernobyl sufferers have turned suffering and disability into a resource affecting family, work, and social identity. It shows how the line between sickness and health becomes a highly politicized one as traditional forms of Soviet social organization, particularly the labor collective, are being replaced by a new architecture of welfare claims, privileges, laws, and identities. It also discusses the role of the Exclusion Zone in an informal Soviet economy and capitalist transition, as well as the ways in which workers micromanage inflation with a sick role sociality in their everyday lives. Finally, it considers the establishment of medical-labor committees to handle the growing number of disability claims related to the Chernobyl explosion and highlights a city of sufferers where so many individuals have gained their illnesses for life.Less

City-building

Stephen J. Collier

in Post-Soviet Social: Neoliberalism, Social Modernity, Biopolitics

This chapter focuses on the urbanist discussions of the late 1920s and early 1930s in which city-building was articulated as a form of total planning applied to problems of social modernity. The ... More

This chapter focuses on the urbanist discussions of the late 1920s and early 1930s in which city-building was articulated as a form of total planning applied to problems of social modernity. The 1920s were a fertile period of experimentation with the reconstruction of daily life, and leading figures of the architectural avant-garde explored the possibility that architecture could be an instrument for generating new forms of sociality and, ultimately, men and women of a new type. However, by the late 1920s these discussions were being reoriented by the turn toward forced industrialization. Meanwhile, Soviet discussions of settlement in the early 1930s began to treat population as a mass of human individuals whose labor could be instrumentally deployed in production.Less

Is sociality a crucial prerequisite for the emergence of language? *

Luc Steels

in The Prehistory of Language

This chapter reports theoretical research exploring the hypothesis that language evolved in a cultural fashion as a complex adaptive system. It does not propose a theory to explain how sociality may ... More

This chapter reports theoretical research exploring the hypothesis that language evolved in a cultural fashion as a complex adaptive system. It does not propose a theory to explain how sociality may have arisen or how it gets reinforced by an existing language system. Instead, it examines the extent to which ultrasociality is indeed a crucial prerequisite. Is it the case that if the sociality assumption is not adopted at the linguistic level, communication systems do not get off the ground at all? Is sociality not only a sufficient but also a necessary condition for the emergence and transmission of complex symbol-based communication? And how strict does sociality have to be? Is it possible that some form of linguistic cheating can be tolerated? And how can an existing communication system reinforce sociality once it has emerged? Before delving into these issues, the chapter first summarizes the main hypothesis for the cultural evolution of language (section 3.2), gives an example of the language-game experiments we have been carrying out (section 3.3), and then turns to the sociality question itself (section 3.4).Less

Pollination by Bees

Pat Willmer

in Pollination and Floral Ecology

This chapter considers pollination by bees, or melittophily. The bee flower syndrome involves flowers that have medium to long corolla tubes, often pendant, usually zygomorphic (i.e., bilaterally ... More

This chapter considers pollination by bees, or melittophily. The bee flower syndrome involves flowers that have medium to long corolla tubes, often pendant, usually zygomorphic (i.e., bilaterally symmetrical rather than radial), commonly with a landing platform with complex texture or ridging so that a bee can hang on easily, and often arranged in spiked inflorescences. The flowers typically open in the early morning and offer their main rewards before midday, although a few are particularly rewarding in the evenings. The chapter begins with a discussion of the bee’s feeding apparatus and feeding methods, along with sensory systems and bee perception of flowers. It then examines the effects of sociality on bees’ flower-visiting patterns as well as behavior and learning in flower-visiting bees. Finally, it analyzes six melittophily types namely: solitary bees, carpenter bees, euglossine bees, bumblebees, stingless bees, and honeybees.Less

Comparative Evolutionary Ecology of Social and Sexual Systems: Water-Breathing Insects Come of Age

Bernard J. Crespi

in Evolutionary Ecology of Social and Sexual Systems: Crustaceans as Model Organisms

The two great divides of evolutionary ecology — conceptual and taxonomic — must be crossed for the study of mating systems and social systems to reach maturity. Conceptual unification should hinge on ... More

The two great divides of evolutionary ecology — conceptual and taxonomic — must be crossed for the study of mating systems and social systems to reach maturity. Conceptual unification should hinge on recognition that both sex and sociality involve conflict between mutually dependent parties over limiting resources, and yield complex mixtures of cooperation and conflict over different prezygotic and postzygotic processes. In general, it should be expected that ecological “harshness” and resource limitation select for increased within-group cooperation in the evolution of sociality, and between-sex cooperation in the evolution of mating systems. Such cooperation is, however, coupled with enhanced between-group conflict in sociality, or within-sex conflict in mating systems. Taxonomic and phylogenetic divides create opportunities for recognizing convergences. Groups such as the Crustacea are highly diverse yet understudied compared to vertebrates and insects, and as such they provide especially high returns on research investment.Less

Society: Canid Society

David W. Macdonald, Scott Creel, and Michael G. L. Mills

in The Biology and Conservation of Wild Canids

This chapter addresses the question of why some canids live in groups, while others do not, and asks what shapes their societies. The behavioural and ecological selective pressures of group living ... More

This chapter addresses the question of why some canids live in groups, while others do not, and asks what shapes their societies. The behavioural and ecological selective pressures of group living are discussed. It is argued that while behavioural benefits may favour sociality in wild canids, ecological factors create the framework within which behavioural pressures operate, and dictate the balance of costs and benefits between group membership and dispersal.Less

Keynes on Knowledge, Expectations, and Rationality

Sheila Dow

in Rethinking Expectations: The Way Forward for Macroeconomics

This chapter examines John Maynard Keynes' views on knowledge, expectations, and rationality. It focuses not only on Keynes' ideas on expectation formation but also on the degree of confidence ... More

This chapter examines John Maynard Keynes' views on knowledge, expectations, and rationality. It focuses not only on Keynes' ideas on expectation formation but also on the degree of confidence attached to those expectations (i.e., uncertainty) and what this means for macroeconomic theory. After providing a synthetic account of Keynes' ideas on knowledge and expectations, along with his understanding of the source of uncertainty, the chapter considers his emphasis on the role of conventional judgment, and of conventions more generally, as well as the implications of these ideas for how we may understand and use the concept of rationality in a Keynesian framework, alongside considerations of logic and consistency. Keynes' concern with the interplay between individuality and sociality sheds some light on Keynes in relation to the formulation of microfoundations. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications of Keynes' ideas on knowledge, expectations, and rationality for economic methodology.Less

Social organization and male–female relationships

Tatang Mitra Setia, Roberto A. Delgado, S. Suci Utami Atmoko, Ian Singleton, and Carel P. van Schaik

in Orangutans: Geographic Variation in Behavioral Ecology and Conservation

Despite their semi-solitary nature, associations among orangutans are more common than expected by chance for most combinations of age-sex classes. Variation in party size is due to variation in food ... More

Despite their semi-solitary nature, associations among orangutans are more common than expected by chance for most combinations of age-sex classes. Variation in party size is due to variation in food availability or sexual activity, reflecting the two main types of parties encountered in orangutans. Parties may involve mating or are formed around mothers and immatures of various ages, in which social play is the main social activity. Beyond direct association, Sumatran females tend to remain within audible range of the dominant flanged males, using his long calls to adjust their ranging. Females tend to be more philopatric than males, although it is not clear whether males disperse away from their natal range or end up including their natal range within a much larger home range. The accumulating evidence suggests that orangutans live in more than mere neighbourhoods, but in loose communities in which related females form clusters, share a preference for the same dominant flanged male, within whose earshot they tend to remain and whose ranging is more limited. Further study should reveal whether this Sumatra-derived picture also holds for Borneo.Less

Healthy Agency and Its Behavioral Tendencies

Lawrence C. Becker

in Habilitation, Health, and Agency: A Framework for Basic Justice

This chapter shows how the functional abilities and motivation of basically healthy agents are concerned with the subject matter of justice.

A New Christianity for the People: German Sermons, Part 1

Kurt Flasch

in Meister Eckhart: Philosopher of Christianity

This chapter examines Meister Eckhart's German sermons, in which he reflects on a reform of Christianity, a new philosophy of nature, and ethics. It first considers Eckhart's views about the grounds ... More

This chapter examines Meister Eckhart's German sermons, in which he reflects on a reform of Christianity, a new philosophy of nature, and ethics. It first considers Eckhart's views about the grounds of reason and the good man before turning to his theory of sociality. It then discusses Eckhart's arguments regarding the egoistic constructs of moral behavior and the love for God, and specifically his claim that earlier Christian thinkers understood love incorrectly. It also explores a number of explanations for the time frame of Eckhart's German sermons and goes on to analyze the characteristic content of the sermons, including his interpretation of the Bible and his intention to show that one can know what faith says. Finally, it looks at Eckhart's philosophy of Christianity, his criticism of the theology of the time, his concept of God and the soul, and his thoughts on the primary determinations (Being, Oneness, Truth, Goodness).Less

Agones: The Constitution of a Practice

Tejumola Olaniyan

in Scars of Conquest/Masks of Resistance: The Invention of Cultural Identities in African, African-American and Caribbean Drama

As elaborated earlier, there are three major contradicting and comprehensive types of discourse: Eurocentric, Afrocentric, and post-Afrocentric. The sociality and historicity of these concepts as ... More

As elaborated earlier, there are three major contradicting and comprehensive types of discourse: Eurocentric, Afrocentric, and post-Afrocentric. The sociality and historicity of these concepts as actual practices in contestable settings are discussed. The chapter provides examples of activities showing any form of discrimination toward the black race, instances when researches utilized the thoughts of the Africans, and turning points that provoked the marginalized people to rise above their doubts. While each side offers ways for them to become widely acceptable, the claim of scientific inquiry, absolute truth, and credible prediction cannot be subsumed to only one discipline, orientation, or bias. It is asserted that an interdisciplinary approach and respect to others' perspectives, even if no general acceptance occurs, should be observed in order to locate the strengths of “others” and figure out how these discoveries can contribute to the betterment of one's standpoint.Less