“What Am I — Qualia, Brahman, Neurons, or just Nothing?”
“Is the mind locked inside the brain, or does it require the whole body?”
Chat with SageEmbodied Cognition challenges the Cartesian model of a disembodied intellect. It studies how our concepts and cognitive processes are shaped by our physical bodies and environmental interactions.
Embodied cognition argues that our thoughts and concepts are grounded in physical actions and sensory-motor systems. For example, we understand spatial concepts (like 'forward' or 'down') because we are upright organisms that move through space.
Developed by Francisco Varela, enactivism asserts that cognition is not representing an independent world. It is the active bringing forth of a world of meaning through continuous sensorimotor interaction between the organism and its environment.
Andy Clark and David Chalmers proposed that the mind is not limited by the skull or skin. If we use an external tool (like a notebook, calculator, or smartphone) to store and process information, that tool is a literal extension of our cognitive system.
Recommended research papers, debates, and lectures