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(2011) Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 10 (3).
The extended mind
born to be wild? a lesson from action-understanding
Nivedita Gangopadhyay
pp. 377-397
The extended mind hypothesis (Clark and Chalmers in Analysis 58(1):7–19, 1998; Clark 2008) is an influential hypothesis in philosophy of mind and cognitive science. I argue that the extended mind hypothesis is born to be wild. It has undeniable and irrepressible tendencies of flouting grounding assumptions of the traditional information-processing paradigm. I present case-studies from social cognition which not only support the extended mind proposal but also bring out its inherent wildness. In particular, I focus on cases of action-understanding and discuss the role of embodied intentionality in the extended mind project. I discuss two theories of action-understanding for exploring the support for the extended mind hypothesis in embodied intersubjective interaction, namely, simulation theory and a non-simulationist perceptual account. I argue that, if the extended mind adopts a simulation theory of action-understanding, it rejects representationalism. If it adopts a non-simulationist perceptual account of action-understanding, it rejects the classical sandwich view of the mind.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1007/s11097-011-9198-y
Full citation:
Gangopadhyay, N. (2011). The extended mind: born to be wild? a lesson from action-understanding. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 10 (3), pp. 377-397.
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