Tadeusz Zawidzki, “Mindshaping: A New Framework for Understanding Human Social Cognition” (MIT Press, 2013)
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What is the overall premise of Mindshaping and how does it differ from traditional theory‑of‑mind accounts?
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Hello and welcome to New Books and Philosophy, a podcast channel in the New Books Network. I'm Carrie Figor, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Iowa. And I'm co host of the channel along with Robert Talis, professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University. We interview philosophers about their new books, covering a wide range of areas including ethics, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, political philosophy, aesthetics, and many more. Today's interview is with Tad Sawitsky, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Co Director of the Mind Brain Evolution Cluster at the George Washington University. We'll be talking about his new book. Mind Shaping, a new framework for understanding human social cognition, which is just out from the MIT Press.
Social cognition involves a small bundle of cognitive capacities and behaviors that enable us to communicate and get along with each other. A bundle that we have and even our closest primate cousins don't, at least not to the same level of sophistication. Pervasive collaboration, language, mind reading, and what Zwitsky calls mind shaping. Which in turn includes our capacities and dispositions to imitate, to be natural learners. And to conform to and enforce social social norms. Most researchers hold that mind reading, our theory of mind, is the linchpin of the rest. Our ability to ascribe one another mental states with propositional content is necessary for sophisticated language use and for mind shaping.
Zwitsky argues in contrast with That what's fundamental in social cognition is the mind shaping capacity. That this ability to homogenize our minds, as he puts it, Makes sophisticated mind reading and language possible. On his view, for example, language didn't evolve so that we could express thought, it evolved so that we could express our commitment to cooperative behavior. Zwitsky's innovative approach centers on reinterpreting and extending Daniel Dennett's intentional stance. So that it takes on a role in the cognitive development of the species and in individuals' development of their other social cognitive capacities. Let's turn to the interview. Hello, Tad. Hello. Hi, welcome to New Books in Philosophy.
Hi, thanks. Thanks for having me.
Uh I'm very excited to be talking about your new book. Um uh mind shaping a new framework for understanding human social cognition which is just out from uh MIT Um Before we get into the details of the interview, um I always like to start with a little bit of background about uh about you and about the project. Um so how how did you come to philosophy in general and how did you get interested in the topic of the book and and come to write the book?
Uh well I was
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the overall premise of Mindshaping and how does it differ from traditional theory‑of‑mind accounts?
0:00–20:58
2
How did Tad Zawidzki become interested in philosophy and the topic of his new book?
20:58–37:58
3
What is “mind‑shaping” and how does it function as a basic social‑cognitive capacity?
37:58–56:44
4
Why does Zawidzki argue that language evolved to express cooperative commitments rather than thoughts?
56:44–1:05:18
5
How does the book reinterpret Daniel Dennett’s intentional stance for explaining social cognition?
1:05:18–1:08:05
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from New Books in Philosophy
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