Abstract
The nascent discipline of social neuroscience promises to mutually enrich sociology as well as cognitive neuroscience by extending and deepening their respective models of social cognition. Where sociology brings to the table an extensive literature regarding the social contexts and dynamics of cognition, neuroscience models the cellular and computational architectures on which social cognition supervenes. However, there are two deep conceptual issues here that need to be addressed: (i) The extent to which the neurosciences can model the intentional and situational contexts of social cognition. (ii) The appropriate level of neural architecture (molecular, cellular, circuitry, system, behavioral, etc.) at which social cognition is to be mapped.
Social cognition…comprises computational strategies…and draws on a restricted set of neural structures that are sufficiently well defined that we can speak of a neural system for social cognition” (Adolphs 2006: 280).
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Tibbetts, P. Sociology and Neuroscience: An Emerging Dialogue. Am Soc 47, 36–46 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-015-9268-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-015-9268-7