Main description:

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.

Contents:

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

2.1 System of Synthetic Philosophy

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 of a 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 New Framework: 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