ABC Radio National

The Philosopher's Zone





Date/Time 29 Dec 2014 7:31:44am
The extended mind concept implies that cognition occurs beyond the mind. Without any doubt, the mind (ie cognitive processes) is comprehensively influenced and enhanced by complex engagement with tools, such as axes, computers, notepaper and vehicles, with the environment, with communication with other minds, the internet, etc. These influence the way a mind works, but they cannot physically extend the mind beyond its brain. Not possible, unless you are redefining what the word ‘mind’ means. Even memory, entirely within the mind, is affected and distorted by emotions about the past and by phenomena such as reconstruction, decay, association and availability of reinforcement. What can be said about 'extended mind' is a metaphor for the fact that that perception memory learning and engagement with the world is enhanced and biased by innumerable processes, including what the body is doing and the social, physical, emotional and historical environment it is doing it in. That we cannot isolate these influences from the action of the mind does not mean that that the mind is acting somewhere beyond its bodily self. Let’s not let useful or poetic metaphors be taken as true and especially let’s not erode an important concept (like ‘mind’) by extending its definition to include the metaphor. You can break a rock with a hammer. That doesn’t make the hammer part of the rock.
