[lbo-talk] Sociality and culture (was Bonobo you don't)

[Charles Brown]

[WS:] I think you are downplaying the importance of mirror neurons and the
behavior they enable.  Mirror neurons are essential in developing empathy -
which is considered the most "human" of all emotions.  Arguably, empathy is
the foundation of all social organization and social solidarity.  Without
empathy, you would essentially have that heaven of neoliberalism, a "market
society" -  aka Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071691/ 


^^^^^
CB; However ,if you notice, monkeys have mirror neurons. The study in
question is about monkeys ,not humans. Therefore, if the mirror neuron is
the basis for empathy, then monkeys would have as much empathy as humans,
and that would contradict your assertion that empathy is "the most _human_
of all emotions", since monkeys would have it too. 

Monkey see, monkey do: Mirror neuron in monkeys might explain the famous
monkey ability to imitate.

So, what it unique in human social organization and social solidarity is
humans' ability to relate "socially" to a wider group of their species than
other primates like chimps and monkeys. It's not that other primates are not
social, it is that humans extend that sociality even further. This wider
group is across both time and space. I emphasize the social "solidarity"
across time. Note that the ancestors reach forward in time, as well as the
descendents reaching back in time. The invention of culture occurred when
some hominids thought "lets communicate with future generations. How can we
pass messages on to our future descendents".