4 Realization and Extended Cognition
Cognitive Systems and the Extended Mind November 1, 2009 Robert D. Rupert
The chapter examines a realization-based interpretation of the extended mind thesis, which holds that cognitive states belong to an organismically bounded system but can have physical implementations that extend beyond the organism's boundary. Functionalism and the concept of physical realization in philosophy of mind are explained in detail. The author argues that this extension-friendly approach to realization is untenable: it either undermines the examples that motivate the extended view or becomes too liberal to be useful in cognitive science. The difficulty arises because standard examples of extended cognitive processing involve interactions with the environment, yet during these interactions, the realizers of the cognitive states are distinct from the things the system interacts with.