Out of body. Language, emotions and art in Vygotsky's "Notebooks"
Rivista Internazionale di Filosofia e Psicologia December 31, 2020 DOI: 10.4453/rifp.2020.0019 (opens in new tab) via DOAJ
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractHuman emotions can be understood as artificial entities external to the body, shaped by culture and language, with a specific biological goal. This view combines Vygotsky's historical-cultural psychology and Chomsky's theory of language to extend the extended mind thesis, arguing that emotions are not confined within bodily boundaries. The model is applied to artistic human affect, suggesting emotions are constructed through social and linguistic processes rather than being purely internal or natural.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Extended mind Language Vygotsky Chomsky Human emotions |
| Key finding | Proposes that emotions are artificial entities external to the body, with a biological goal, based on combining Vygotsky's and Chomsky's theories. |
Abstract
According to the extended mind thesis, the human mind is not limited by the boundaries of the body. In this paper, we propose a description of human emotions based on two distinct theories, not usually considered together: Vygotsky’s historical-cultural psychology and Chomsky’s theory of language. Together these two perspectives allow us to construct a global theory of extended mind that considers emotions to be artificial entities that have a specific “biological” goal and are external to the body. In the last short section, this model will be applied to the case of “artistic” human affect.