Content area
Full Text
ZAWIDZKI, Tadeusz Wieslaw. Mindshaping: A New Framework for Understanding Human Social Cognition. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 2013. xxlii +317 pp. Cloth, $42.00-Mindshaping offers a powerful account of what makes human social cognition distinctive. According to the received view, human social cognition is rooted in savvy interpretive abilities for "mindreading" (or "folk psychology"). Mindreading consists in the ability to interpret and predict other people's behavior by ascribing mental states. Against this view, Zawidzki argues that human social cognition is rooted in our savvy capacities for mindshaping. The main idea is that social cognition depends on the ability to regulate our own and others' behavior in conformity with social models. This makes our behavior easier to interpret and expands our abilities to engage in collaborative endeavors by making people more alike.
Zawidzki first clarifies his explanatory target and the notion of mindshaping. His target is what he calls "the human socio-cognitive syndrome." This encompasses four abilities whose sophistication outstrips that of nonhuman animals: mindreading, cooperation, mindshaping, and language. According to the received view, mindreading is the most fundamental of these abilities, the one that makes the others possible. Zawidzki argues that mindshaping is fundamental. Mindshaping consists in "get[ting] a target...