Issue #25

Abstract: The study presented in this paper is in line with attempts to find a plausible answer to the question about the relationship of the cognitive abilities of humans and social animals to their social forms of life. As a research principle, a computational interpretation of cognitive function as a computational process in a system with memory and feedback is applied. The empirical material drawn from psychology, cognitive sociology and cognitive social neuroscience is analyzed. These data show, in particular, that joint actions are based on mutual cognitive control and self-control from the perspective of the other. The cognitive abilities of individuals not only support, but also restrain the forms of their social interaction. The ‘self’-systems and social systems are in the relation of mutual constitution. Cognitive social neuroscience dwells on subject-matters of secondary representations, “false” beliefs, and also it searches for and successfully determines areas of the brain responsible for social cognitive functions. The paper formulates the principles of the cognitive theory of society: computationalism, cognitivism, communicative functionalism.