Here is Fred’s contribution to the Extended Mind CSR special issue:
What makes a process a cognitive process? I’m not just asking for a list of cognitive processes, but for what makes an item on that list a cognitive process. Why should it be on the list? This is a question that has been ignored far too long in the domain of research calling itself cognitive science. It is time to give an answer and that is what I propose in this paper. I contrast my answer with others that have been given and defend the need against some claims in the literature that a mark of the cognitive is not needed.
May 28, 2012
Short URL Cognition, Cognitive neuroscience, Cognitive science, Embodied cognition, Extended Mind, Philosophy of mind extended cognitive systems, extended mind, externalism, Fred Adams
Here is a survey paper that I was “action editor” for.
May 27, 2012
Short URL Artificial intelligence, Cognition, Cognitive neuroscience, Cognitive science, Embodied cognition, Mog Stapleton, Philosophy of mind, Social Sciences cognitive science, cognitive systems, cognitive systems research, extended mind, externalism
Since I’m about to submit another themed issue of Cognitive Systems Research I thought I’d give a plug to the papers from the last CSR “Extended Mind” issue I edited some two months ago. First up is Dan Weiskopf’s paper:
According to the hypothesis of extended cognition (HEC), parts of the extrabodily world can constitute cognitive operations. I argue that the debate over HEC should be framed as a debate over the location and bounds of cognitive systems. The “Goldilocks problem” is how to demarcate these systems in a way that is neither too restrictive nor too permissive. I lay out a view of systems demarcation on which cognitive systems are sets of mechanisms for producing cognitive processes that are bounded by transducers and effectors: structures that turn physical stimuli into representations, and representations into physical effects. I show how the transducer–effector view can stop the problem of uncontrolled cognitive spreading that faces HEC, and illustrate its advantages relative to other views of system individuation. Finally, I argue that demarcating systems by transducers and effectors is not question-begging in the context of a debate over HEC.
May 23, 2012
Short URL Artificial intelligence, Cognition, Cognitive neuroscience, Cognitive science, Embodied cognition, Extended Mind, Philosophy of mind, qualia dan weiskopf, extended cognitive systems, extended mind, externalism
New EM paper by Kourken Michaelian published in Consciousness and Cognition.
May 22, 2012
Short URL Cognition, Cognitive neuroscience, Cognitive science, Consciousness and Cognition, Consciousness Studies, Extended Mind, Memory, neuroscience, Philosophy of mind, University of Granada Andy Clark, david chalmers, extended cognitive systems, extended mind, externalism, kourken michaelian
Coming soon the first of three papers I’ve co-authored with Dave Hardwick, this one due in Advances in Austrian Economics, Vol. 17
ABSTRACT
Purpose/problem statement – The two most successful complex adaptive systems are the Market and Science, each with an inherent tendency toward epistemic imperialism. Of late, science, notably medical science, seems to have become functional or subservient to market imperatives. We offer a two-fold Hayekian analysis: a justification of the multiplicity view of spontaneous orders and a critique of the libertarian justification of market prioricity.
Methodology/approach – This paper brings to light Hayekian continuities between diverse literatures – philosophical, epistemological, cognitive and scientific.
Findings – The very precondition of knowledge is the exploitation of the epistemic virtues accorded by society’s manifold of spontaneous forces, a manifold that gives context and definition, to intimate, regulate, and inform action. The free-flow of information is the life-blood of civil (liberal) society. The commoditization of medical knowledge promotes a dysfunctional free-flow of information that compromises notions of expertise and ultimately has implications for the greater good.
Research limitations/implications – While we accept that there are irresolvable tensions between these epistemic magisteria we are troubled by the overt tampering with the spontaneous order mechanism of medical science. The lessons of Hayek are not being assimilated by many who would go by the adjective Hayekian.
Originality/value of paper – On offer is a Hayekian restatement (contra the libertarian view typically attributed to Hayek) cautioning that no one spontaneous order should dominate over another neither should they be made conversable. Indeed, we argue that the healthy functioning of a market presupposes institutions that should not answer to market imperatives.
May 9, 2012
Short URL Austrian School, Economics, Epistemology, Friedrich Hayek, Hayek, Market, social epistemology, Spontaneous order extended cognitive systems, extended mind, liberalism, libertarianism, liberty, philosophy of social science, political philosophy, science, scientific publishing, spontaneous orders
The VERY excellent Rob Rupert on naturalistic theories of mental content and no surprise – extended mind. Also with Jonno Sutton and Richard Menary sandwiched in between Rob. H/T to Ken Aizawa for the alert. Here is a link to my collection of ”Rupertiana“.
May 4, 2012
Short URL Alan Saunders, Brain, Cognition, Cognitive neuroscience, Cognitive science, complexity, David Chalmers, Embodied cognition, Extended Mind, Philosophy of mind, Philosophy of science, Robert Rupert, Shaun Gallagher Andy Clark, Chalmers, extended mind, externalism, john sutton, robert rupert
“Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips” in Science.
The advent of the Internet, with sophisticated algorithmic search engines, has made accessing information as easy as lifting a finger. No longer do we have to make costly efforts to find the things we want. We can “Google” the old classmate, find articles online, or look up the actor who was on the tip of our tongue. The results of four studies suggest that when faced with difficult questions, people are primed to think about computers and that when people expect to have future access to information, they have lower rates of recall of the information itself and enhanced recall instead for where to access it. The Internet has become a primary form of external or transactive memory, where information is stored collectively outside ourselves.
April 18, 2012
Short URL Cognition, Cognitive neuroscience, Cognitive science, Extended Mind, Google, Philosophy of mind, Search Engines, Searching, social epistemology, Spontaneous order, Stigmergy, Transactive memory, Web search engine distributed cognition, distributed knowledge, extended cognitive systems, extended mind, externalism, global brain, google, memory
A pre-print of Paul Smart’s paper.
April 17, 2012
Short URL Cognition, Cognitive science, Extended Mind, Mind, Paul Smart, philosophical psychology, Philosophy of mind, Shaun Gallagher, Social Sciences Andy Clark, cognitive science, cognitive systems, consciousness, david chalmers, extended mind, externalism, neurophilosophy, robert wilson
Three luminaries – Rob Rupert, Richard Menary and Jonno Sutton – discuss the topic on Australia’s Radio National The Philosopher’s Zone.
P.S. H/T to Ken Aizawa for bringing Rupert’s review of Clark to our attention.
April 4, 2012
Short URL Cognitive science, Embodied cognition, Cognition, Philosophy of mind, philosophical psychology, Extended Mind, Philosophy, Brain, Cognitive neuroscience, Robert Rupert, Richard Menary, Rob Rupert philosophy of mind, extended mind, neurophilosophy, situated cognition, externalism, richard menary, john sutton
Shaun Gallagher talk:
I argue that the extended mind hypothesis requires an enactive, neo-pragmatic concept of intentionality if it is to develop proper responses to a variety of objections. This enactive concept of intentionality is based on the phenomenological concept of a bodily (or motor or operative) intentionality outlined by Husserl and Merleau-Ponty. I explore the connections between this concept and recent embodied approaches to social cognition.
See also Evan Thompson on “Mind in life and life in mind” and Michael Wheeler on “Cognition at the crossroads: from embodied minds to thinking bodies“
March 29, 2012
Short URL Cognitive neuroscience, Cognitive science, Edmund Husserl, Embodied cognition, enactivism, Evan Thompson, Extended Mind, Husserl, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, merleau-ponty, Michael Wheeler, Mind in Life: Biology Phenomenology and the Sciences of Mind, qualia, Shaun Gallagher Adams & Aizawa, Descartes, embodied cognition, embodiment, Enacted, enaction, enactivism, Evan Thompson, extended mind, externalism, functionalism, intentionality, Michael Wheeler, neurophilosophy, phenomenology, Shaun Gallagher, situated cognition, social cognition