A Materialist Social Theory of the Idea

This book is a welcome achievement: an accessible introduction to the problem of the production of ideation through material and neuroscientific mechanisms, to neuromaterialism as a solution, and to the implications of the solution. It is clearly written, engages with a wide range of commentators, and most importantly explains the significance of the neuromaterialist restatement of idealist concepts for the humanities and for social scientific traditions, which rely on forms of dualism.

Dr. Stephen Turner

Distinguished University Professor

University of South Florida

In a world of hyper-specialized academic research, independent scholar Erwin James Casareno has read broadly and produced a daring work of theoretical synthesis. His neuromaterialist sociological framework will stimulate new ways of theorizing and analyzing the mutual constitution of cognition and social structures.

Dr. Gabe Ignatow

Professor of Sociology

University of North Texas

I have been hoping someone would write this book for a while. It’s a wonderfully synthetic and compelling account of the existing theoretical approaches to tracking the material and social life of ideas. More than that, it is a kind of guidebook containing well-posed case studies that illustrate exactly how such methods might work in practice. This is a text definitely worth engaging with on a key issue in materialist philosophy.

Dr. Thomas Nail

Distinguished Scholar and Professor of Philosophy

University of Denver