Aesthetics and the Limits of the Extended Mind
British Journal of Aesthetics March 13, 2019 Ted Nannicelli
This paper argues that 4E (embodied, embedded, extended, enactive) cognition research can inform philosophical aesthetics, but that the strongest claims—especially active externalism about music—face serious challenges. Active externalism, which holds that cognitive processes extend into the environment, is difficult to reconcile with actual appreciative practices and lacks sufficient explanatory power to justify revising those practices. Rejecting active externalism is necessary to recognize that artistic creation often involves embodied know-how and skills. Embodied and embedded approaches are better suited to complement traditional humanistic methods in aesthetics, but a remaining challenge is whether they can yield new insights about art that traditional inquiry could not provide.