maxistentialist:

Žižek writes, “As a rule, neuroscientists avoid two things like a vampire avoids garlic: any links to European metaphysics, political engagement, and reflection upon the social conditions which gave rise to their science.”

If there’s one thing that I think philosophers should sit up and learn from cognitive science, it’s that philosophies of the subject will not necessarily lead to either alienation or a kind of Protagorean Relativism.

Humans are fundamentally alike, in that our minds are ordered according to highly regular and similar rules.

In his awesome book “The Blank Slate,” cognitive linguist Steven Pinker provides a comprehensive list of “human universals” - human behaviors and experiences observed in all cultures.

Do you think that this is as cool and important as I do? Don’t you wish you could show this to Kant?

• abstraction in speech and thought
• actions under self-control distinguished from those not under control
• aesthetics
• affection expressed and felt
• age grades
• age statuses
• age terms
• ambivalence
• anthropomorphization
• anticipation
• antonyms
• attachment
• baby talk
• belief in supernatural/religion
• beliefs, false
• beliefs about death
• beliefs about disease
• beliefs about fortune and misfortune
• binary cognitive distinctions
• biological mother and social mother normally
• the same person
• black color term)
• body adornment
• childbirth customs
• childcare
• childhood fears
• childhood fear of loud noises
• childhood fear of strangers
• choice making choosing alternatives)
• classification
• classification of age
• classification of behavioral propensities
• classification of body parts
• classification of colors
• classification of fauna
• classification of flora
• classification of inner states
• classification of kin
• classification of sex
• classification of space
• classification of tools
• classification of weather conditions
• coalitions
• collective identities
• conflict
• conflict, consultation to deal with
• conflict, means of dealing with
• conflict, mediation of
• conjectural reasoning
• containers
• continua ordering as cognitive pattern
• contrasting marked and nonmarked sememes meaningful elements in language
• cooking
• cooperation
• cooperative labor
• copulation normally conducted in privacy
• corporate perpetual statuses
• coyness display
• critical learning periods
• crying
• cultural variability
• culture
• culture/nature distinction
• customary greetings
• daily routines
• dance
• death rituals
• decision making
• decision making, collective
• differential valuations
• directions, giving of
• discrepancies between speech, thought, and action
• dispersed groups
• distinguishing right and wrong
• diurnality
• divination
• division of labor
• division of labor by age
• division of labor by sex
• dominance/submission
• dreams
• dream interpretation
• economic inequalities
• economic inequalities, consciousness of
• emotions
• empathy
• entification treating patterns and relations as things
• environment, adjustments to
• envy
• envy, symbolic means of coping with
• ethnocentrism
• etiquette
• explanation
• face word for
• facial communication
• facial expression of anger
• facial expression of contempt
• facial expression of disgust
• facial expression of fear
• facial expression of happiness
• facial expression of surprise
• facial expressions, masking/modifying of
• fairness equity, concept of
• family or household
• father and mother, separate kin terms
• for
• fears
• fear of death
• fears, ability to overcome some
• feasting
• females do more direct childcare
• figurative speech
• fire
• folklore
• food preferences
• food sharing
• future, attempts to predict
• generosity admired
• gestures
• gift giving
• good and bad distinguished
• gossip
• government
• grammar
• group living
• groups that are not based on family
• habituation
• hairstyles
• hand word for
• healing the sick or attempting to
• hope
• hospitality
• husband older than wife on average
• hygienic care
• identity, collective
• imagery
• incest between mother and son unthinkable or tabooed
• incest, prevention or avoidance
• in-group distinguished from out-groups
• in-group biases in favor of
• inheritance rules
• institutions organized co-activities
• insulting
• intention
• interest in bioforms (living things or things that resemble them)
• interpolation
• interpreting behavior
• intertwining (e.g., weaving)
• jokes
• judging others
• kin, close distinguished from distant
• kin groups
• kin terms translatable by basic relations of procreation
• kinship statuses
• language
• language employed to manipulate others
• language employed to misinform or mislead
• language is translatable
• language not a simple reflection of reality
• language, prestige from proficient use of
• law rights and obligations
• law rules of membership
• leaders
• lever
• likes and dislikes
• linguistic redundancy
• logical notions
• logical notion of “and”
• logical notion of “equivalent”
• logical notion of “general/particular”
• logical notion of “not”
• logical notion of “opposite”
• logical notion of “part/whole”
• logical notion of “same”
• magic
• magic to increase life
• magic to sustain life
• magic to win love
• making comparisons
• male and female and adult and child seen as having different natures
• males dominate public/political realm
• males engage in more coalitional violence
• males more aggressive
• males more prone to lethal violence
• males more prone to theft
• males, on average, travel greater distances over lifetime
• manipulate social relations
• marking at phonemic, syntactic, and lexical levels
• marriage
• materialism
• meal times
• mearning, most units of are non-universal
• measuring
• medicine
• melody
• memory
• mental maps
• mentalese
• metaphor
• metonym
• mood- or consciousness-altering techniques and/or substances
• moral sentiments
• moral sentiments, limited effective range of
• morphemes
• mother normally has consort during child-rearing years
• mourning
• murder proscribed
• music
• music, children’s
• music related in part to dance
• music related in part to religious activity
• music seen as art (a creation)
• music, vocal
• music, vocal, includes speech forms
• musical redundancy
• musical reptition
• musical variation
• myths
• narrative
• nomenclature
• nonbodily decorative art
• normal distinguished from abnormal states
• nouns
• numerals counting
• Oedipus complex
• oligarchy (de facto)
• one numeral
• onomatopoeia
• overestimating objectivity of thought
• pain
• past/present/future
• person, concept of
• personal names
• phonemes
• phonemes defined by set of minimally constrasting features
• phonemes, merging of
• phonemes, range from 10 to 70 in number
• phonemic change, inevitability of
• phonemic change, rules of
• phonemic system
• planning
• planning for future
• play
• play to perfect skills
• poetry/rhetoric
• poetic line, uniform length and range
• poetic lines characterized by repetition and variation
• poetic lines demarcated by pauses
• polysemy (one word has several meanings)
• possessive, intimate
• possessive, loose
• practice to improve skills
• precedence
• preference for own children and close kin nepotism
• prestige inequalities
• pretend play
• pride
• private inner life
• promise
• pronouns
• pronouns, minimum two numbers
• pronouns, minimum three
• persons
• proper names
• property
• proverbs, sayings
• proverbs, sayings - in mutually contradictory forms
• psychological defense mechanisms
• rape
• rape proscribed
• reciprocal exchanges (of labor, goods, or services)
• reciprocity, negative revenge, retaliation
• recognition of individuals by face
• redress of wrongs
• resistance to abuse of power, to dominance
• rhythm
• right-handedness as population norm
• risk-taking
• rites of passage
• rituals
• role and personality seen in dynamic interrlationship (i.e., departures from role can be explained in terms of individual personality)
• sanctions
• sanctions for crimes against the collectivity
• sanctions include removal from the social unit
• self-control
• self distinguished from other
• self as neither wholly passive nor wholly autonomous
• self as subject and object
• self-image, awareness of concern for what others think
• self-image, manipulation of
• self-image, wanted to be positive
• self is responsible
• semantics
• semantic category of affecting things and people
• semantic category of dimension
• semantic category of giving
• semantic category of location
• semantic category of motion
• semantic category of other physical properties
• semantic components
• semantic components, generation
• semantic components, sex
• sememes, commonly used ones are short, infrequently used ones are longer
• senses unified
• sex differences in spatial cognition and behavior
• sex gender terminology is fundamentally binary
• sex statuses
• sexual attraction
• sexual attractiveness
• sexual jealousy
• sexual modesty
• sexual regulation
• sexual regulation includes incest prevention
• sexuality as focus of interest
• shame
• shelter
• sickness and death seen as related
• snakes, wariness around
• social structure
• socialization
• socialization expected from senior kin
• socialization includes toilet training
• spear
• special speech for special occasions
• statuses and roles
• statuses, ascribed and achieved
• statuses distinguished from individuals
• statuses on other than
• sex, age, or kinship bases
• stinginess, disapproval of
• stop/nonstop contrasts in speech sounds
• succession
• sucking wounds
• sweets preferred
• symbolism
• symbolic speech
• synesthetic metaphors
• synonyms
• taboos
• tabooed foods
• tabooed utterances
• taxonomy
• territoriality
• thumb sucking
• tickling
• time
• time, cyclicity of
• tools
• tool dependency
• tool making
• tools for cutting
• tools to make tools
• tools patterned culturally
• tools, permament
• tools for pounding
• toys, playthings
• trade
• triangular awareness (assessing relationships among the self and two other people)
• true and false distinguished
• turn-taking
• two numeral
• tying material i.e., something like string
• units of time
• verbs
• violence, some forms of proscribed
• visiting
• vocalic/nonvocalic contrasts in phonemes
• vowel contrasts
• weaning
• weapons
• weather control, attempts to
• white (color term)
• world view

Interesting, though I have a few questions that I would love to have clarified as I have never read Pinker and only have a passing knowledge of his work via Wikipedia articles.

Whose philosophies are you referring to that necessarily lead to alienation or Protagorean relativism, and how does cognitive science avoid such follies?

What aspect of ‘the subject’ in philosophy necessarily leads to one of these two options?

What do you mean by alienation (by this i mean is the subject alienating something or is something in the subject being alienated against, what is the subject object relation of alienation)?

By Protagorean Relativism I assume you’re referring to the Protagoras maxim that “man is the measure of all things,” are you saying that the options are between alienation and the subject determining their own ______? Could you clarify what is being considered relative?

Finally, what is the consequence of a particular person not possessing one of the listed universal human attributes? I understand that Pinker seems to be drawing conclusions from common concepts among cultures and imposing these concepts as fundamental to humanity as a whole, but a culture is a group of people and doesn’t necessarily fully represent the opinions or beliefs of a single person within that group. So to restate, are atheists considered human under this paradigm?