Grounding Social Science in Cognitive Sciences by Ron Sun

Sun, Ron, ed. Grounding Social Sciences in Cognitive Sciences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2012. ix + 455 pages. Hardcover, $50.00. This interesting book edited by cognitive scientist Ron Sun argues for incorporating cognitive (i.e. psychological and neurological) approaches into existing social science analytical framework. Due to importance of cognition in biological and social evolution, authors maintain that cognitive understanding should be a common ground for all social sciences. They claim that this change will bring social sciences closer to physical sciences and to reality. The book does not formally define cognitive science, but gives a list of subjects that fall into its realm, including computational psychology, experimental psychology, linguistics, cognitive neuroscience, and so (p. 4). The authors say they do not want to see these fields create new sub-disciplines. They recognize importance of traditional social science sub-disciplines, arguing that they are well established and have their own analytical and traditions. They believe, however, that it is possible to make existing fields better through application of cognitive sciences. The book addresses particularly relationship between cognitive science and culture, politics, and religion. The authors consider anthropology to be field most closely related to cognitive sciences. It was even considered a part of cognitive science by some researchers. The book focuses on how cognitive models can improve anthropological analysis in context of culture through interaction of self-systems and social systems. As authors explain, Using models as a unit of culture allows for linkage between mental representations and social institutions (p. 89). For political science, book delineates emotion, discourse, and ethics, as three areas of potential overlap with cognitive science. The authors remind us, Public opinion is shaped by powerful emotional forces (p. 128). Moreover, authors specifically identify anxiety and anger as cognitive factors that can be modeled together with such traditional factors as gender, education, or age in political science models. Since political action is largely language-based, authors identify possible cognitive models to analyze political language and understand political social interaction. They also assess possibilities for studying moral choices, particularly in context of war and political upheaval. Cognitive perception, they argue, is able to explain the spontaneous aspect of moral choice (p. 185). The book treats religion as a special and influential component in social life that can be analyzed through either standard model of cognitive science or through so-called coevolutionary theories. As they point out, cognitive science of religion is a new branch of knowledge about study of the mental representation of ritual structures and the role of implicit cognition in cultural transmission (p. 243). Last but not least, book discusses potential links between cognitive science and economics. Paying attention to human behavior is not new in economics. Economics itself is a study of how people and society make choices and face scarcity. …