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understanding depended entirely on past experiences of our own intentions and actions, there might be much more misunderstanding and cynicism in the world. However, the capacity to reason, hypothesize, and model possible futures may increase social understanding beyond the anchor of purely egocentric perspective. We can conceive of alternatives to our own goals and motives and relate those alternatives to the actions we observe. To some extent, this process might also involve the motor system by mentally simulating actions and anticipated responses. By imagining how we might act in some situation to achieve a goal or the alternative ways we may act given some intention, it may be possible to go beyond the limits of our own experience. Such constructive imagery may well depend on the motor system, along with other neural systems, but currently there is no scientific evidence that such a system might be linked with the operation of mirror neurons.

Conclusion

We are equipped to understand the world around us by relating what we perceive to our own experiences. With respect to actions in particular, our brains have specialized circuitry to relate previously executed actions to newly perceived ones, possibly by performing an internal (imagined) simulation of them. There is evidence too that we might understand the emotional states of others by a similar kind of process, whereby our brains activate circuits for experiencing the emotion as a way to understand that emotion in others. These brain mechanisms might also apply (to a greater or lesser degree) when we try to understand actions or feelings by non-human animals or even inanimate entities. This could be a partial biological explanation of anthropomorphism, as discussed by Epley and Gilpin. Of course as humans we have the ability to go beyond these strict egocentric limitations and recognize and respond to our social connections more explicitly. This ability to go beyond the more basic grounding of the way we understand others may subserve part of the goal of some religions, discussed by Kathryn Tanner, in fostering a more abstract view of our connection to others. While a mirror neuron system might help form the basis for some aspects of social understanding, there may well be other invisible forces at work supported by these and other neural systems in our social brain.

References

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2. Dewey, J. (1903). Democracy in Education. The Elementary School Teacher, 4(4), 193-204.

3. Gallese, V., Fadiga, L., Fogassi, L., & Rizzolatti, G. (1996). Action recognition in the premotor cortex. Brain, 119 ( Pt 2), 593-609.

4. Iacoboni, M., Woods, R. P., Brass, M., Bekkering, H., Mazziotta, J. C., & Rizzolatti, G. (1999). Cortical mechanisms of human imitation. Science, 286(5449), 2526-2528.

5. Iacoboni, M., Molnar-Szakacs, I., Gallese, V., Buccino, G., Mazziotta, J. C., & Rizzolatti, G. (2005). Grasping the intentions of others with one's own mirror neuron system. PLoS Biology, 3, 529-535.

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