8 The Experience of Extension and the Extension of Experience

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter explores two routes from phenomenology to extended cognition. One appeals directly to the contents of conscious experience, for example, the subject's sense of having an extended body under certain conditions. It is argued that the best account of such results is an error theory, one that appeals to neural representations of body, self, and the environment; the general fallibility of introspective reports is also discussed. The other route rests on a theory of sensory experience, the sensorimotor contingency view. It is argued that the distinctive claim of such a view—concerning the ubiquity of virtual content—is false and thus cannot be used to support an extended view; it is also argued that the systems-based view, and its organismically local application, provides the best explanation of the learning of sensorimotor contingencies.