Distributed Cognition, Porous Qualia and Modernist Narrative

Distributed cognition can be understood as a kind of qualia—the felt experience of extending beyond one's own skin. Drawing on Daniel Dennett's distinction between scientific and manifest ontology, fictional narratives offer access to this manifest truth of 'porous qualia.' Analyzing works by Arnold Bennett, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf, the chapter defines three modes of porous qualia: projecting, responding, and circulating, ranging from minimal to innovative forms. Against the backdrop of unified nationalisms, Woolf's use of rhythmic repetitive touch models a new communal feeling that combines connectedness with respect for individual difference.

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Abstract

This chapter’s purpose is two-fold: to propose an approach to distributed cognition as qualia and to probe modernist narratives and cultural history for insights about such qualia’s effects. Following Daniel Dennett’s distinction between scientific ontology, dependent on empirically verifiable (or falsifiable) truth, and ‘manifest ontology,’ or the truth of what someone is experiencing, the chapter takes fictional narratives as the manifest truth of ‘porous qualia,’ or what it is like to feel we extend beyond our skin. Drawing on Arnold Bennett, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf, the chapter defines three modes of porous qualia termed projecting, responding, and circulating, ranging from the most minimal forms to the most penetrating and innovative. Against the background of aggressively unified nationalisms, these modes culminate in Woof’s use of rhythmic repetitive touch to adumbrate a new communal modelling that combines feelings of connectiveness with respect for difference in individual lives.