Brain through the Lens of Biocultural Co-Constructivism

The article briefly outlines the idea of biocultural co-constructivism and, through its lens, provides insights into the interaction of society, culture and the brain as a holistic system with active mutual impacts of each component, which allows talking about the phenomenon of “social brain”. It is shown that socio-cultural factors have a significant impact on the functions of neural structures, their activity and the restructuring of the architectonics of the brain even at the macroscopic level. The paths of natural and cultural development are expressed in co-creation, co-generation of meanings; these trajectories cross and form a system that ensures their active interaction and interdetermination. Culture defines the perspective of classification, outlook and the modes of its evaluation; it sort of filters out fragments of reality that do not fit into the cultural “grid of categories”. This helps to conclude that the idea of a “cognitive and versatile” subject of cognition should be rethought in view of new empirical material provided by cultural neuroscience. The subject of cognition in the context of biocultural co-constructivism is “linked” to a specific situation that characterizes the relationship of society, culture and the brain. The modern neuroscience makes the need for naturalism and sociocentrism obvious, suggests the shift towards revising the rigorous attitudes of logocentrism and the prospects for knowledge deanthropologization.