FromitsbeginningsinAncientGreece，，especiallyintheanalytictraditionoftheAnglophoneworld，aswellasinpsychologysinceitsbirthasanacademicdisciplineinthe19thcentury.
，animportantnewparadigmhasemergedinthelastfewdecadesthatattemptstocharacterizehumanshared （orcollective） ，MichaelBratman，andMargaretGilberthaveuncoveredsomeofthemanywaysinwhichhumanactivitiesthat，onthesurface，seemindividualisticareinrealityonlypossiblebecauseoftheunderlyingsocialrelationshipsandculturalconventions，norms， “deepstructure” ofuniquelyhumanpsychologyisessentiallysocialandcultural.
Inpsychology，，itisclearthatthemostimportantdifferencesderivefromhumans’，humansseemtobemuchmoreinclinedtoengageinvariouskindsofcooperation，，butitalsoappliestomorebasichumancompetenciessuchasconventionallinguisticcommunicationandindividualself-regulationviathesociety’smoralnorms.
，-itis-butonlyforolderchildren；itdoesnotcreateyoungchildren’sgenerallycooperativenaturethatshowsupbothwhentheygotosometroubletohelpothersfulfilltheirgoals，.
，forexample，formperspectivalcognitiverepresentations （sothatthesameanimalmaybecalledeitheradogorapet） ，forexample，nottocontradictoneselfdirectly，arenormsthatcomefromthesocietyasawholeand，inessence，，ofcourse，butitismadepossiblebyaculturalhistoryofjazzmusicthathascreatedtheinstruments，thebasicpatterns，andtheaudiencethatconstitutethisparticularwayofmakingmusic.
Iamnoexpert，butfromwhatIreadincross-culturalpsychology，ChinaalongwithmanyotherEastAsiancountriesaremuchmore“collectivist”，Ionlyarguefortheiraccuracy，andIhopetheydoprovidesomemeasureofinsightintothebasicprocessesofhumansocialinteractionandthinking，evenforreaderswhoarealreadysteepedincollectivistwaysofthinkingandacting.
MichaelTomasello
2016.7.7
