The Social Lives of Minds and Brains

Abstract

The sociology of mind has a history that can be traced to the writings of the nineteenth century social thinkers who crystallized sociology as a scientific discipline. It is a topic that has worried some of the major sociological thinkers of the twentieth century from G.H. Mead and Lev Vygotsky to John Dewey and from C.Wright Mills to Randall Collins. This tradition has not been a significant part of the emerging neuroscience/social science nexus. I use this tradition as a gateway to a sociology of the brain. The rationale for a sociological approach is that it has become increasingly clear that our brains do not stand apart from our bodies, our social relations, and our environments. Indeed, it is now clear that we have social brains.