Peter-- There is a LOT of evidence to support the claim that
He argues that changes in the environment actually change how brains work;
that brains encode representations differently in response to changes in
the setting.
Start with AR Luria and his slogan that the circuits of the brain are
completed through the environment, and in the case of humans, that means
the culturally organized environment.
I have a new paper (somewhere!) with Jan Derry that reviews some of the
Japanese studies on the brain bases of abacus expertise that supports this
claim. If I can find it, I'll try to put in on my web page
I think it is way past time for people to stop counterposing the social
and the biological. It simply can't hold water except with a lot of bracketing
and even then it is dangerous. The human "social" is BOTH the consequence of
our phylogenetic heritage AND our cultural history which gives human sociality
its specific nature (and some, like Savage-Rumbaugh of Kanzi fame would deny
even that), I would not.
Your analysis of the two approaches to character ed sounds right on to me.
How about "pacification" as a name for the first approach?
mike
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