Brain plasticity naturalizes and thereby justifies a certain type of social and political organization.

Evidence

We will respond, without playing on words, by saying that the consciousness we want to raise on the subject of plasticity has to do with its power to naturalize consciousness and meaning. Clearly, if we are not conscious of plasticity this is because, in accordance with a merely apparent paradox, it is in fact so familiar to us that we do not even see it; we do not note its presence, like an environment in which we maintain ourselves and evolve without paying attention to it. It has become the form of our world. … As though neuronal function were confounded with the natural operation of the world, as though neuronal plasticity anchored biologically—and thereby justified—a certain type of political and social organization. This is precisely what is meant by a ”naturalization effect.” The authors declare that we live in a ”connectionist world with the coherence and immediacy of something natural.” — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 50

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the ‘naturalization effect’: plasticity being so familiar it vanishes into the taken-for-granted form of our world, biologically anchoring a social organization.
• XREF: Connects to Frankfurt School claims already in library about how social order is legitimized by being made to seem natural.