Philosophical essay on social brain, empathy, and language

transcendence and belonging can simultaneously lead to greater fitness of the individual and increased cohesion and sustainability of the social organization—another indication of positive selection associated with the social brain. The notion of resonance with another appears repeatedly through the book. Our connections to others derive in part from being able to see what they see, to hear what they hear, to know what they know, to feel what they feel. Or we have to be able to believe not only that this is possible, but that it happens. The social brain, in which the same regions are activated by our own experience of pain and by our perception of others in pain, makes both aspects possible. There is a close connection between being able to “feel for” another (empathy) and to “see into” another mind (anthropomorphism). Language has the potential to affect people and groups in part because it is tied to meaning. Language is the medium through which we convey, preserve, and transmit meaning from one individual to another, and from one social generation to another. Language is powerful because it can activate belief, which in turn can activate physical responses. Words can bind; words can terrify; and words can cause physical pain and death. The power of words comes from the meanings they entail about our connections to one another. Paradox Our investigation of invisible forces involving the social brain has led us repeatedly to factors that fundamentally conflict. An important invisible force is the respect we pay to the boundary between self and other. 151 Page Our relationship to it comes into play in conceptualizing loneliness, anthropomorphism, spirituality, group behavior, empathy, and inclusive fitness. When we speak of loneliness, this boundary seems to be an impenetrable barrier. When we speak of empathy or anthropomorphism, however, the self- other boundary is defined by the similarity and congruence of individuals to one another, providing a transparent window through which we perceive and interact with others (who must be like us). And when we speak of group synchrony, the boundary vanishes completely: self and other are one. Successful engagement with others requires work. It is the work of attending to something, and it is work that often is needed to resolve competing forces. Thinking about other minds is a demanding task and requires attentional effort. It is this effort that allows us to manipulate the transparency of the self- other boundary by what we put in through learning, attending, seeking, and projecting. In effect, we can tune the degree of resonance we have with members of different groups. Similarly, consistent attentional effort is also required for the physician to attend to the mindfulness of patients, for the Vineyard church member to experience God as present in one’s life, and for another to find connection to an omnipresent yet invisible God who works through the very workings of the world. What it means to feel a connection to a higher being is a theme that several essays explore. As is evident in these essays, the Network has considered very different, even divergent, pictures of what such connection might entail. These apparent inconsistencies that can be found in HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_021397