The Social Impulse

The Evolution and Neuroscience of What Brings Us Together
1. Auflage 2022
ISBN: 978-3-031-08438-6
Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Buch, Englisch, 190 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 494 g

This book is an exploration of the integration-differentiation dynamics that result in a drive, or impulse, toward human sociality, arguing that our need to connect with other people is as fundamental as our need for food and shelter.  In The Social Impulse: The Evolution and Neuroscience of What Brings Us Together, Jaime Pineda presents the evidence that social cohesion is a complementary force to natural selection, the Darwinian drive for differentiation and diversity. The book addresses the distinctive aspects of social behavior that arise from integration principles and seeks to answer the following questions: (1) Why does social cohesion arise? (2) What is the history of social dynamics? (3) How does social cohesion work? (4) When do the developmental aspects of social dynamics arise? A final section of the book addresses the value of sociality and social cohesion. By exploring the differences, similarities, and, most important, the interactivity between natural selection and social cohesion, this unique book provides a wealth of interesting, challenging, and unexpected insights.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Pineda

Pineda, Ph.D., Jaime A.

Fachgebiete

• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Klinische und Innere Medizin Neurologie, Klinische Neurowissenschaft
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Neurowissenschaften, Kognitionswissenschaft
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften Evolutionsbiologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Table of Contents

Part I Differentiation-Integration Dynamics: Ultimate Causes

Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1              Darwinian Dilemmas 1.2              Lingering Issues in the Social Domain 1.3              Goals and Themes Chapter 2: Purposeless Design

2.2              The Supreme Law of Every Becoming

2.3              Revolutionary Ideas

2.4              Social Evolution

Chapter 3: Darwinian Evolutionary Theory

3.1              The Incompleteness of Natural Selection

3.2              Group or Multilevel Selection

3.3              Gene-Culture Coevolution in Humans

3.4              Lamarckian Evolution and Epigenetics

3.5              Filling in a Darwinian Gap

Chapter 4: Principles of Differentiation and Integration

4.1              Integrating the Processes of Evolution 4.2              Fundamental, Opposing Forces

4.3              Decreased Interdependency, Increased Complexity

4.4              Decreased Autonomy, Increased Function

4.5              Integration and Differentiation in the Brain

Chapter 5: The Information Trend in Science

5.1              Evolution as Information

5.2              Features of Scientific Integration

5.3              Vertical Integration of Information

5.4              Horizontal Integration

Chapter 6: Is Social Cohesion a Different Mechanism of Evolution?

6.1              Not Parallel, but Interactive and Intentional

6.2              Cultural Innovations as Traits

6.3              Cumulative Culture, Groups, and Social Cohesion

6.4              The Role of Communication

6.5              Sociocultural Primitives and Self-Organization

Part II Roots and Mechanisms: Proximate Causes

Chapter 7: Fundamental Physical Forces, Genes, and Epigenetics

7.1              Entropy and Negentropy in Evolution

7.2              Eusociality and Prosociality Responses to Evolutionary Pressures

7.3              Genetic Transition to Eusociality and Prosociality

7.4              The Impact of Epigenetics on Sociality

Chapter 8: Biological Origins

8.1              From Unicellular to Multicellular Life 8.2              Cell Signaling and Adhesion 8.3              Phylogenetic Continuity 8.4              Mathematical Aggregation and Cohesiveness Chapter 9: Neural Mechanisms of Sociality

9.1              The Social Brain 

9.2              Phylogeny of Social Behavior

9.3              Group Dynamics and Knowledge of Others

9.4              Social Intersubjectivity and the Insular Cortex

9.5              Interpersonal Neurobiology 

Chapter 10: Psychological Features

10.1The Cognitivism Paradigm

10.2Psychological Mechanisms of Social Cognition 10.3The Role of Imitation Learning

10.4Evolutionary Psychology, Memes, and Culture

Chapter 11: Cognitive Science Underpinnings

11.1Social Cognition and Cohesiveness

11.2Empathy and Compassion

11.3Phylogenetic Primitives and Ontogenetic Continuity

11.4Constraints on the Becoming Function

11.5Phenomenology: The Lived Experience

Chapter 12: A Sociological Systems Theory

12.1Societal Differentiations

12.2Structurally Linked Sociality and Social Cohesion

12.3Social Enactivism and Collective Rituals in the Wild

Chapter 13: Developmental Roots

13.1Developmental Evolutionary Psychology

13.2History of Cognitive Development

13.3Social Brain Networks

13.4The Importance of Language

13.5Architecture of the Linguistic Systems

Chapter 14: Metaphysical, Religious, and Spiritual Aspects 14.1Metaphysics and Religious Transformation of Reality

14.2The Importance of Myths: A Story of Origins

14.3Integration as the Search for Unity

14.4Evolution and Democratization of the Religious Impulse

14.5Cultural Aspects of Religion

Part III Survival Value

Chapter 15: Sociality’s Survival Value

15.1Filling in the Explanatory Gaps

15.2Benefits ofa More Synthetic Theory 15.3Wise Managers of Evolutionary Processes

15.4Social Cohesion and Sociality

15.5Why Males Court and Females Choose

15.6Doing and Undoing Complexity

15.7Emergent General Intelligence

Part IV Conclusions

Chapter 16: A NewFramework: A Theory of Integration

16.1Refinement of the Darwinian Framework

16.2Sociality as Constraint-Satisfaction and Self-Organizing

16.3Origins of Social Cohesion

16.4Sociocultural Development of Sociality

16.5Final Thoughts

Appendix

Poem: Song of the Shattering Vessels

References

Index

Über Autor(innen)

During 36 years at the University of California, San Diego, Jaime A. Pineda received his Ph.D. in Neuroscience, completed postdoctoral work in Psychiatry, and was founding faculty member of the Cognitive Science Department. Until his retirement in 2018, Professor Pineda directed the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory where he explored the relationship between mind and brain. His research focused on the neuroetiology of autism, the role of mirror neurons in social cognition, neuronal plasticity, and brain-computer interfaces. He served on many NIH committees and was a reviewer for several scholarly journals. He is the author of over 100 articles, books, and reviews on the relationship between brain and mind, having published many widely cited papers in animal and human cognitive and systems neuroscience. Professor Pineda used brain imaging techniques, as well as behavioral, psychological and pharmacological methods, to understand normal and abnormal cognitive function. As a principal investigator on a long-term project studying Autism Spectrum Disorder, he was interested in developing strategies to reduce cognitive, behavioral, and neurofunctional deficits through self-directed neural plasticity. Professor Pineda was also scientific co-founder of Otosound, a biomedical therapeutics company involved in the treatment of tinnitus, and an active advisor for a variety of neurotechnology companies. Professor Pineda came to the United States from Honduras, Central America in 1963 at 9 years of age to get a better education. He is also a writer and poet, focusing on mind-brain relationships with an emphasis on spirituality, mysticism, environmentalism, and social activism.