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What can cognitive neuroscience do for cultural sociology?

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Abstract

Can cognitive neuroscience contribute to cultural sociology? We argue that it can, but to profit from such contributions requires developing coherent positions at the level of ontology and coherent epistemological views concerning interfield relations in science. In this paper, we carve out a coherent position that makes sense for cultural sociology based on Sperber’s “infra-individualist” and Clark’s “extended cognition” arguments. More substantively, we take on three canonical topics in cultural sociology: language, intersubjectivity, and associational links between elements, showing that the cognitive neurosciences can make conceptual and empirical contributions to the thinking of cultural sociologists in these areas. We conclude by outlining the opportunities for further development of work at the intersection of cultural sociology and the cognitive neurosciences.

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Notes

  1. For related but different attempts see Ignatow (2014) and Pitts-Taylor (2014).

  2. For work on lateral classification see Hertz (2013[1960]) and Lukes (2003).

  3. The very act of thinking about this possibility necessitates bracketing knowledge of human (and primate more generally) evolution [see for example Kaufmann and Cordonier (2011)].

  4. This phenomenon is analogous to what cognitive neuroscientists refer to as “temporal synchrony” (Feldman 2013; Shastri 1996), or the idea that analysts are more likely to observe binding when the neurons are activated concurrently.

  5. Only cognitive neuroscientists must embrace strong versions of the psychoneural identity theory, and this is mostly for methodological reasons.

  6. https://scienceandsociety.duke.edu/research/research-areas/neuroscience-society/neurohumanities.

  7. https://blogs.plos.org/neuroanthropology/.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, UCLA, 375 Portola Plaza, 264 Haines Hall, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1551, USA

    Omar Lizardo

  2. Department of Sociology, University of Notre Dame, Jenkins Nanovic Hall, Notre Dame, IN, 46556, USA

    Brandon Sepulvado & Dustin S. Stoltz

  3. Department of Sociology, New Mexico State University, 292B Science Hall, 1290 Frenger Mall, Las Cruces, NM, 88003, USA

    Marshall A. Taylor

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Lizardo, O., Sepulvado, B., Stoltz, D.S. et al. What can cognitive neuroscience do for cultural sociology?. Am J Cult Sociol 8, 3–28 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41290-019-00077-8

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