Extended cognition: Difference between revisions
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It has been customary to think of the mind as a processing center that creates mental representations of reality and uses them to control the body's behavior. The field of extended cognition focuses upon the processes involved in this creation, and subsumes these processes as part of 'mind'. As a result, mind is no longer confined to the brain or body, but involves interaction with the environment. At a 'low' level, like [[motor learning]], [[haptic perception]],<ref name=Morasso/> and [[psycholinguistics]] the body is obviously involved in cognition, but it is equally obvious that there is a 'high' level where cultural factors play a role.<ref name=Ratner/> This broadened view of cognition and cognitive science is sometimes referred to as ''enaction'' to emphasize the role of interplay between the organism and its environment and the feedback processes involved in developing an awareness of, and a reformation of, the environment.<ref name=Stewart/> | It has been customary to think of the mind as a processing center that creates mental representations of reality and uses them to control the body's behavior. The field of extended cognition focuses upon the processes involved in this creation, and subsumes these processes as part of 'mind'. As a result, mind is no longer confined to the brain or body, but involves interaction with the environment. At a 'low' level, like [[motor learning]], [[haptic perception]],<ref name=Morasso/> and [[psycholinguistics]] the body is obviously involved in cognition, but it is equally obvious that there is a 'high' level where cultural factors play a role.<ref name=Ratner/> This broadened view of cognition and cognitive science is sometimes referred to as ''enaction'' to emphasize the role of interplay between the organism and its environment and the feedback processes involved in developing an awareness of, and a reformation of, the environment.<ref name=Stewart/> | ||
==Social constructivism== | |||
{{main|Social constructivism}} | |||
Extended cognition involves groups as well as individuals. [[Social constructivism]] is the study of an individual's learning that takes place because of their interactions in a group, and the group's experience with its environment. According to Gergen, the social constructionist orientation suggests:<ref name=Gergen/> | |||
# What we take to be knowledge of the world is not a product [simply] of induction, or of the building and testing of hypotheses...How can theoretical categories be induced or derived from observation,...if the process of identifying observational attributes itself relies on one's possessing categories? ... Constructionism asks one to suspend belief that commonly accepted categories or understandings receive their warrant through observation. | |||
# The terms in which the world is understood are social artifacts, products of historically situated interchanges among people. From the constructionist position the process of understanding is not automatically driven by the forces of nature, but is the result of an active, cooperative enterprise of persons in relationship....[We are invited] to consider the social origins of taken-for-granted assumptions about the mind – such as the bifurcation between reason and emotion, the existence of motives and memories, and the symbol system believed to underlie language. | |||
# The degree to which a given form of understanding prevails or is sustained across time is not fundamentally dependent on the empirical validity of the perspective in question, but on the vicissitudes of social processes (e.g., communication, negotiation, conflict, rhetoric) | |||
# Descriptions and explanations of the world themselves constitute forms of social action. As such they are intertwined with the full range of other human activities. | |||
An example is the idea of a ''paradigm'' as described by [[Thomas Kuhn]] in his book [[The Structure of Scientific Revolutions]].<ref name=Guzzini/><ref name=Latour/> For the scientist a ''paradigm'' refers to the sense of the way reality is structured and the means by which the scientist uncovers this reality and is able to manipulate it and predict effects and events. The dissatisfaction of scientists with an existing theory leads to a [[paradigm shift]], and this dissatisfaction is a matter of criteria demanded of an acceptable theory. These criteria are not themselves scientifically established, but describe an 'ideal' theory as seen by the scientific community, criteria such as 'elegance', 'completeness', 'seminality', 'simplicity'.<ref name=Kuhn/><ref name=Colyvan/> | |||
Thus, as the idea of extended cognition suggests within the context of social constructivism, the development of a paradigm involves the interaction of scientists with their environment and each other, the theoretical treatment of experimental results, and re-engagement in probing the environment on the basis of that theory, sometimes with very sophisticated apparatus, such as the [[Hadron collider]] or the [[Hubble telescope]], and the evolution and application of an aesthetic stemming from social interactions. | |||
==References== | ==References== | ||
{{reflist|refs= | {{reflist|refs= | ||
<ref name=Colyvan> | |||
{{cite book |title=The Indispensability of Mathematics |author=Mark Colyvan |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=OBs-TSFopLkC&pg=PA78 |pages=78–79 |isbn=0195166612 |year=2001 |publisher=Oxford University Press}} | |||
</ref> | |||
<ref name=Gergen> | |||
{{cite journal |title=The social constructionist movement in modern psychology |author=Kenneth J Gergen |journal=American Psychologist |volume=40 |issue=3 |date=March 1985 |pages=266 ''ff'' |url=http://www.swarthmore.edu/Documents/faculty/gergen/Social_Constructionist_Movement.pdf}} | |||
</ref> | |||
<ref name=Guzzini> | |||
{{cite journal |author=Stefano Guzzini |title=A reconstruction of constructionism in international relations |journal=European Journal of International Relations |volume=6 |issue=2 |url=http://www.artsrn.ualberta.ca/courses/PoliticalScience/661B1/documents/GuzziniReconstructionofConstructivisminIR.pdf |year=2000 |quote=One of the main defenders of epistemological constructivism who is also well known in IR [international relations], Thomas Kuhn. |page=158}} | |||
</ref> | |||
<ref name=Kuhn> | |||
[[Thomas Kuhn]] formally stated the need for the "norms for rational theory choice". One of his discussions is reprinted in {{cite book |title=The Road since Structure: Philosophical Essays, 1970-1993, |author=Thomas S Kuhn |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=sXufWLnPp94C&pg=PA208 |pages=208 ''ff'' |chapter=Chapter 9: Rationality and Theory Choice |editor=James Conant, John Haugeland, eds |edition=2nd |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=0226457990}} | |||
</ref> | |||
<ref name=Latour> | |||
{{cite book |title=Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts |author=Bruno Latour, Steve Woolgar |page=275 |quote=Kuhn had already provided...the general basis for a conception of the social character of science. |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=XTcjm0flPdYC&pg=PA275 |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1986 |isbn=978-0691028323}} | |||
</ref> | |||
<ref name=Morasso> | <ref name=Morasso> | ||
Revision as of 08:47, 3 April 2014
Extended cognition concerns the extension of mental processes and mind beyond the body to include the environment in which an organism is embedded and the organism's interaction with that environment. As described by Rowlands, mental processes are:[1]
- Embodied involving more than the brain, including a more general involvement of bodily structures and processes.
- Embedded functioning only in a related external environment.
- Enacted involving not only neural processes, but also things an organism does.
- Extended into the organism's environment.
It has been customary to think of the mind as a processing center that creates mental representations of reality and uses them to control the body's behavior. The field of extended cognition focuses upon the processes involved in this creation, and subsumes these processes as part of 'mind'. As a result, mind is no longer confined to the brain or body, but involves interaction with the environment. At a 'low' level, like motor learning, haptic perception,[2] and psycholinguistics the body is obviously involved in cognition, but it is equally obvious that there is a 'high' level where cultural factors play a role.[3] This broadened view of cognition and cognitive science is sometimes referred to as enaction to emphasize the role of interplay between the organism and its environment and the feedback processes involved in developing an awareness of, and a reformation of, the environment.[4]
Social constructivism
Extended cognition involves groups as well as individuals. Social constructivism is the study of an individual's learning that takes place because of their interactions in a group, and the group's experience with its environment. According to Gergen, the social constructionist orientation suggests:[5]
- What we take to be knowledge of the world is not a product [simply] of induction, or of the building and testing of hypotheses...How can theoretical categories be induced or derived from observation,...if the process of identifying observational attributes itself relies on one's possessing categories? ... Constructionism asks one to suspend belief that commonly accepted categories or understandings receive their warrant through observation.
- The terms in which the world is understood are social artifacts, products of historically situated interchanges among people. From the constructionist position the process of understanding is not automatically driven by the forces of nature, but is the result of an active, cooperative enterprise of persons in relationship....[We are invited] to consider the social origins of taken-for-granted assumptions about the mind – such as the bifurcation between reason and emotion, the existence of motives and memories, and the symbol system believed to underlie language.
- The degree to which a given form of understanding prevails or is sustained across time is not fundamentally dependent on the empirical validity of the perspective in question, but on the vicissitudes of social processes (e.g., communication, negotiation, conflict, rhetoric)
- Descriptions and explanations of the world themselves constitute forms of social action. As such they are intertwined with the full range of other human activities.
An example is the idea of a paradigm as described by Thomas Kuhn in his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.[6][7] For the scientist a paradigm refers to the sense of the way reality is structured and the means by which the scientist uncovers this reality and is able to manipulate it and predict effects and events. The dissatisfaction of scientists with an existing theory leads to a paradigm shift, and this dissatisfaction is a matter of criteria demanded of an acceptable theory. These criteria are not themselves scientifically established, but describe an 'ideal' theory as seen by the scientific community, criteria such as 'elegance', 'completeness', 'seminality', 'simplicity'.[8][9]
Thus, as the idea of extended cognition suggests within the context of social constructivism, the development of a paradigm involves the interaction of scientists with their environment and each other, the theoretical treatment of experimental results, and re-engagement in probing the environment on the basis of that theory, sometimes with very sophisticated apparatus, such as the Hadron collider or the Hubble telescope, and the evolution and application of an aesthetic stemming from social interactions.
References
- ↑ Mark Rowlands (2010). “Chapter 3: The mind embedded”, The new science of the mind: From extended mind to embodied phenomenology. MIT Press, 51 ff. ISBN 0262014556.
- ↑ Pietro Morasso (2005). Consciousness as the emergent property of the interaction between brain, body, & environment: the crucial role of haptic perception. Slides related to a chapter on haptic perception (recognition through touch): Pietro Morasso (2007). “Chapter 14: The crucial role of haptic perception”, Antonio Chella & Riccardo Manzotti, eds: Artificial Consciousness. Academic, 234-255. ISBN 978-1845400705.
- ↑ Carl Ratner (2011). Macro Cultural Psychology: A Political Philosophy of Mind. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199706298. “Culture produces the mind; brain circuitry does not. The mind-body problem of how the physical body/brain produces mental, subjective qualia, is the wrong way to frame the origin of consciousness.”
- ↑ John Stewart, Oliver Gapenne, Ezequiel A DiPaolo (2014). “Introduction”, John Stewart, Oliver Gapenne, Ezequiel A DiPaolo, eds: Enaction, Paperback. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-52601-2.
- ↑ Kenneth J Gergen (March 1985). "The social constructionist movement in modern psychology". American Psychologist 40 (3): 266 ff.
- ↑ Stefano Guzzini (2000). "A reconstruction of constructionism in international relations". European Journal of International Relations 6 (2). “One of the main defenders of epistemological constructivism who is also well known in IR [international relations], Thomas Kuhn.”
- ↑ Bruno Latour, Steve Woolgar (1986). Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691028323. “Kuhn had already provided...the general basis for a conception of the social character of science.”
- ↑ Thomas Kuhn formally stated the need for the "norms for rational theory choice". One of his discussions is reprinted in Thomas S Kuhn. “Chapter 9: Rationality and Theory Choice”, James Conant, John Haugeland, eds: The Road since Structure: Philosophical Essays, 1970-1993,, 2nd. University of Chicago Press, 208 ff. ISBN 0226457990.
- ↑ Mark Colyvan (2001). The Indispensability of Mathematics. Oxford University Press, 78–79. ISBN 0195166612.