Distributed Cognition and the Humanities
Miranda Anderson, M. Wheeler, Mark Sprevak
Distributed Cognition in Victorian Culture and Modernism November 1, 2018 DOI: 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474442282.003.0001 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that cognition is brain-, body-, and world-based and that distributed cognition serves both as a methodological approach and as an account of the nature of cognition. Contends that 4E cognition (embodied, embedded, extended, enactive) comprises competing theories, and that humanities topics and methods can be compatible with, questioned by, or revitalized through philosophy of mind and cognitive science, while also contributing to those fields. |
Abstract
The general introduction, which is replicated across all four volumes, aims to orientate readers unfamiliar with this area of research. It provides an overview of the different approaches within the distributed cognition framework and discussion of the value of a distributed cognitive approach to the humanities. A distributed cognitive approach recognises that cognition is brain, body and world based. Distributed cognition is a methodological approach and a way of understanding the actual nature of cognition. The first section provides an overview of the various competing and sometimes conflicting theories that make up the distributed cognition framework and which are also collectively known as 4E cognition: embodied, embedded, extended and enactive cognition. The second section examines the ways in which humanities topics and methodologies are compatible with, placed in question or revitalised by new insights from philosophy of mind and the cognitive sciences on the distributed nature of cognition, and considers what the arts and humanities, in turn, offer to philosophy and cognitive science.