There’s a great new article on the extended mind, titled, “How Google Is Making Us Smarter“, in Discover Magazine’s latest issue. You should definitely check it out.
The theory of the extended mind suggests that the mind is not contained exclusively ‘inside’ the skull, but rather that it extends into the external environment. While our [...]
Archive for the ‘Philosophy of Mind’ Category
The Extended Mind: Technology is Making Us Smarter
Posted in Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind, Technology, tagged Andy Clark, Cognitive Science, David Chalmers, Discover Magazine, embodied mind, embodiment, extended memory, extended mind, externalism, google, internalism, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind, Technology on January 24, 2009 | 1 Comment »
A Field Guide to Embodied Cognition
Posted in Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science, Computer Science, Philosophy of Mind, Technology, tagged Artificial Intelligence, cartesianism, cognitivism, embodied cognition, embodiment, evolution, evolutionary science, Michael Anderson, Michael L. Anderson, situated cognition on December 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Michael L. Anderson has put together a nice field guide to embodied cognition (PDF) which you can access online by following that link.
Centrally, the article outlines that the field of embodied cognition is:
(1) Starkly opposed to Cartesianism.
(2) Denies the conceptual divide between humans and animals, reconnecting our conception of humanity to an evolutionary continuum.
(3) [...]
Monday Profile: Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Posted in Epistemology, Existentialism, Monday Profile, Perception, Phenomenology, Philosophy of Mind, Psychology, philosophy, tagged bodily perception, body-subject, cartesianism, cogito, conception, Descartes, developmental psychology, empiricism, idealism, intellectualism, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Merleau-Ponty, Mind, mind and body, Perception, Phenomenology, phenomenology of perception, philosophy, Psychology, subject and object on December 22, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961) was a French philosopher and phenomenologist. He continues to be credited as the most influential figure in the development of a philosophical understanding of the importance of the body and corporeality.
His most central work in this regard is The Phenomenology of Perception. Through a phenomenological examination of perception, Merleau-Ponty argued for [...]
Monday Profile: Francisco Varela
Posted in Biological Sciences, Cognitive Science, Eastern Thought, Medicine, Meditation/Yoga, Monday Profile, Neuroscience, Phenomenology, Philosophy of Mind, philosophy, tagged autopoiesis, biology, cognitve science, edmund husserl, embodied mind, embodiment, Francisco Varela, Integral Institute, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, neurophenomenology, Neuroscience, Phenomenology, philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Tibetan Buddhism, varela on December 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Francisco Varela (1946-2001) was a Chilean biologist, neuroscientist and philosopher, and is on the shortlist of visionary pioneers who conceived the interdisciplinary thesis of the embodied mind.
He began his academic career studying medicine and biology but also had a wide philosophical orientation, being primarily influenced by the work of phenomenologists Edmund Husserl and Maurice [...]
VIDEO: Alva Noë Discusses the Problems of Consciousness
Posted in Art, Cognitive Science, Dance and Movement Art, Neuroscience, Perception, Phenomenology, Philosophy of Mind, Video, philosophy, tagged Alva Noë, analytic philosophy, Art, brain, brain science, Cognitive Science, cognitivism, consciousness, dance, embodiment, enactivism, experience, intentionality, minds, Neuroscience, Perception, Phenomenology, philosophy, philosophy of art, Philosophy of Mind, reference, Video on November 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Over at Edge, a video interview and written transcript have been posted of Alva Noë discussing many of the philosophical problems concerning consciousness, and how a paradigm shift toward an embodied understanding of mind might help to resolve those problems.
Within it, Noë notes that most modern cognitivist research about consciousness and experience within neuroscience [...]
VIDEO: Hubert Dreyfus Discusses Embodiment
Posted in Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science, Computer Science, Perception, Phenomenology, Philosophy of Mind, Video, philosophy, tagged AI, Artificial Intelligence, being and time, Cognitive Science, edmund husserl, embodied cognition, embodiment, Hubert Dreyfus, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology, philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Video on November 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
This is not exactly the most engaging production, but the discussion does span a wide variety of issues related to embodiment.
Hubert Dreyfus discusses notions of embodiment throughout the history of philosophy, particularly in relation to the philosophy of Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty, and relates it to modern research within Artificial Intelligence and the Internet.
Part [...]
Monday Profile: António Damásio
Posted in Monday Profile, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind, philosophy, tagged Antonio Damasio, BCI, Brain and Creativity Institute, Descartes, Descartes' Error, embodiment, Monday Profile, reason and emotion, somatic-marker hypothesis, Tate Modern on November 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
António Damásio is a Portuguese neuroscientist currently working at the University of Southern California, where he heads USC’s Brain and Creativity Institute.
His contributions to the Philosophy of Embodiment are most accessible in his two bestsellers Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain, and The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the [...]
