SOCIALITY: COORDINATING BODIES, MINDS AND GROUPS
Target article by Caporael on Group-Selection

<hr> Linnda R. Caporael (1995) Sociality: Coordinating Bodies, Minds and Groups. Psycoloquy: 6(01) Group Selection (1)<br>Versions: <a href=ftp://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/pub/psycoloquy//1995.volume.6/psyc.95.6.01.group-selection.1.caporael>ASCII</a> <a href=http://www.cogsci.ecs.soton.ac.uk/cgi/psyc/newpsy?6.01>formatted</a><hr>
<TITLE>Psycoloquy 6(01): Sociality: Coordinating Bodies, Minds and Groups</TITLE>
<H1>SOCIALITY: COORDINATING BODIES, MINDS AND GROUPS<br>
Target article by Caporael on Group-Selection<br>
</H1>
<ADDRESS>Linnda R. Caporael<br>
Department of Science and Technology Studies <br>
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute<br>
Troy, NY 12180<br>
<br>
<a href=mailto:caporl@rpi.edu>caporl@rpi.edu</a> 
</ADDRESS>
<P><H1>Abstract</H1><BLOCKQUOTE>
Human interaction, as opposed to aggregation, occurs in
face-to-face groups. "Sociality theory" proposes that such groups
have a nested, hierarchical structure, consisting of a few basic
variations, or "core configurations." These function in the
coordination of human behavior, and are repeatedly assembled,
generation to generation, in human ontogeny, and in daily life. If
face-to-face groups are "the mind's natural environment," then we
should expect human mental systems to correlate with core
configurations. Features of groups that recur across generations
could provide a descriptive paradigm for testable and non-intuitive
evolutionary hypotheses about social and cognitive processes.  This
target article sketches three major topics in sociality theory,
roughly corresponding to the interests of biologists,
psychologists, and social scientists. These are (1) a multiple
levels-of-selection view of Darwinism, part group selectionism,
part developmental systems theory; (2) structural and psychological
features of repeatedly assembled, concretely situated face-to-face
coordination; and (3) superordinate, "unsituated" coordination at
the level of large-scale societies. Sociality theory predicts a
tension, perhaps unresolvable, between the social construction of
knowledge, which facilitates coordination within groups, and the
negotiation of the habitat, which requires some correspondence with
contingencies in specific situations. This tension is relevant to
ongoing debates about scientific realism, constructivism, and
relativism in the philosophy and sociology of knowledge.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><H1>Keywords</H1><i>
developmental systems theory, group coordination, group
selection, hierarchy, human evolution, social cognition, social
identity, teleofunctionalism
</i>
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