Cognitive Systems and the Extended Mind * By ROBERT D. RUPERT
Analysis July 30, 2010 DOI: 10.1093/analys/anq089 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Book review Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key findings | Rupert's book provides a thorough examination and clear differentiation of the embedded, embodied, and extended views of cognition, which have often been conflated. The review highlights Rupert's exemplary work in teasing these perspectives apart. |
Abstract
Robert Rupert’s book is a thorough examination of a family of views of cognition that have emerged from recent work in what is sometimes called ‘situated’ cognitive science, that is, the kind of cognitive science that tries to take seriously the thought that human cognition is an achievement of creatures with a certain kind of body, which exist in relationships to their physical environment. Thus, Rupert identifies what he calls the embedded view (according to which cognitive processes depend on the organism’s use of external resources), the embodied view (according to which human cognition relies heavily on features of human bodily experience), and the extended view, according to which human cognition literally (spatially) includes elements that lie beyond the boundary of the human organism. Initially set out in an article by Andy Clark and David Chalmers, this last view has more recently has been defended by Clark in various books and articles. These three perspectives have certainly been conflated, though, especially in their infancy (105–07), and Rupert does an exemplary job of teasing them apart.