Social Mindscapes: An Invitation to Cognitive Sociology - Softcover

Zerubavel, Eviatar

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0674813901 ISBN 13: 9780674813908

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1999

Synopsis

Why do we eat sardines, but never goldfish; ducks, but never parrots? Why does adding cheese make a hamburger a "cheeseburger" whereas adding ketchup does not make it a "ketchupburger"? By the same token, how do we determine which things said at a meeting should be included in the minutes and which ought to be considered "off the record" and officially disregarded?

In this wide-ranging and provocative book, Eviatar Zerubavel argues that cognitive science cannot answer these questions, since it addresses cognition on only two levels: the individual and the universal. To fill the gap between the Romantic vision of the solitary thinker whose thoughts are the product of unique experience, and the cognitive-psychological view, which revolves around the search for the universal foundations of human cognition, Zerubavel charts an expansive social realm of mind--a domain that focuses on the conventional, normative aspects of the way we think.

With witty anecdote and revealing analogy, Zerubavel illuminates the social foundation of mental actions such as perceiving, attending, classifying, remembering, assigning meaning, and reckoning the time. What takes place inside our heads, he reminds us, is deeply affected by our social environments, which are typically groups that are larger than the individual yet considerably smaller than the human race. Thus, we develop a nonuniversal software for thinking as Americans or Chinese, lawyers or teachers, Catholics or Jews, Baby Boomers or Gen-Xers. Zerubavel explores the fascinating ways in which thought communities carve up and classify reality, assign meanings, and perceive things, "defamiliarizing" in the process many taken-for-granted assumptions.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Cognitive science addresses cognition on two levels: the individual and the universal. To fill the gap between the Romantic vision of the solitary thinker, whose thoughts are the product of unique experience, and the cognitive-psychological view that revolves around the search for the universal foundations of human cognition, Zerubavel charts an expansive social realm of mind -- a domain that focuses on the conventional, normative aspects of the way we think.

About the Author:

Eviatar Zerubavel is Board of Governors and Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University, where for many years he served as the Director of the Graduate Program in Sociology. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and the author of many books.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0674813901
• ISBN 13: 9780674813908
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176