Sal Restivo is a retired sociologist/anthropologist, a founding member and former president of the Society for Social Studies of Science, and the editor-in-chief of Oxford’s Science, Technology, and Society: An Encyclopedia (2005).

Like an entertaining teacher engaging students in a seminar, drawing widely on his knowledge of philosophy, anthropology, sociology, literature, and recent research on the brain, Sal Restivo builds the case that a person's self cannot be fully understood by studying the functioning of the brain alone. In one fascinating chapter, he illustrates how his theory of the social self can explain the evolution of the elements of John Coltrane’s style of jazz improvisation over the course of his career. To Restivo, Coltrane’s social self as a musician was an open evolving system, the product of an historically evolving social network within the context of the jazz subculture. Restivo's theory has wide implications for contemporary sociological theorizing about the self.

• ContentsAcknowledgmentsList of FiguresPreface: Caveat EmptorIntroductionChapter 1. The Sociological ImaginationChapter 2. Sociology Comes into ViewChapter 3. Evolution Invents the SocialChapter 4. Individual and SocietyChapter 5. The Social Body in Society and PoliticsChapter 6. Genius IncorporatedChapter 7. Improvisation IncorporatedChapter 8. From The Matrix to Reality: Are We Brains in Vats, Simulations, or Brains in the World?Chapter 9. Robots, AI, Brains, and Bodies in the Information AgeChapter 10. The Sociology of ConsciousnessChapter 11. The Social Life of the BrainChapter 12. The Social Brain in Health and IllnessChapter 13. Final Considerations: Brain, Society, and SociologyBibliographyAbout the Author

Sal Restivo is a retired sociologist/anthropologist, a founding member and former president of the Society for Social Studies of Science, and the editor-in-chief of Oxford’s Science, Technology, and Society: An Encyclopedia (2005).

Like an entertaining teacher engaging students in a seminar, drawing widely on his knowledge of philosophy, anthropology, sociology, literature, and recent research on the brain, Sal Restivo builds the case that a person's self cannot be fully understood by studying the functioning of the brain alone. In one fascinating chapter, he illustrates how his theory of the social self can explain the evolution of the elements of John Coltrane’s style of jazz improvisation over the course of his career. To Restivo, Coltrane’s social self as a musician was an open evolving system, the product of an historically evolving social network within the context of the jazz subculture. Restivo's theory has wide implications for contemporary sociological theorizing about the self.

• ContentsAcknowledgmentsList of FiguresPreface: Caveat EmptorIntroductionChapter 1. The Sociological ImaginationChapter 2. Sociology Comes into ViewChapter 3. Evolution Invents the SocialChapter 4. Individual and SocietyChapter 5. The Social Body in Society and PoliticsChapter 6. Genius IncorporatedChapter 7. Improvisation IncorporatedChapter 8. From The Matrix to Reality: Are We Brains in Vats, Simulations, or Brains in the World?Chapter 9. Robots, AI, Brains, and Bodies in the Information AgeChapter 10. The Sociology of ConsciousnessChapter 11. The Social Life of the BrainChapter 12. The Social Brain in Health and IllnessChapter 13. Final Considerations: Brain, Society, and SociologyBibliographyAbout the Author

Sal Restivo is a retired sociologist/anthropologist, a founding member and former president of the Society for Social Studies of Science, and the editor-in-chief of Oxford’s Science, Technology, and Society: An Encyclopedia (2005).

Like an entertaining teacher engaging students in a seminar, drawing widely on his knowledge of philosophy, anthropology, sociology, literature, and recent research on the brain, Sal Restivo builds the case that a person's self cannot be fully understood by studying the functioning of the brain alone. In one fascinating chapter, he illustrates how his theory of the social self can explain the evolution of the elements of John Coltrane’s style of jazz improvisation over the course of his career. To Restivo, Coltrane’s social self as a musician was an open evolving system, the product of an historically evolving social network within the context of the jazz subculture. Restivo's theory has wide implications for contemporary sociological theorizing about the self.

• ContentsAcknowledgmentsList of FiguresPreface: Caveat EmptorIntroductionChapter 1. The Sociological ImaginationChapter 2. Sociology Comes into ViewChapter 3. Evolution Invents the SocialChapter 4. Individual and SocietyChapter 5. The Social Body in Society and PoliticsChapter 6. Genius IncorporatedChapter 7. Improvisation IncorporatedChapter 8. From The Matrix to Reality: Are We Brains in Vats, Simulations, or Brains in the World?Chapter 9. Robots, AI, Brains, and Bodies in the Information AgeChapter 10. The Sociology of ConsciousnessChapter 11. The Social Life of the BrainChapter 12. The Social Brain in Health and IllnessChapter 13. Final Considerations: Brain, Society, and SociologyBibliographyAbout the Author