On the Proper Treatment of Embodiment

Lead Research Organisation: University of Edinburgh
Department Name: Sch of Philosophy Psychology & Language

Abstract

Work in embodied cognition depicts thought and reason as in some way inextricably tied to the details of our bodily form, sensorimotor skills, and the enabling web of social, cultural, and technological scaffolding in which we live, move, learn and think. But exactly what kind of link between the mind, the body and the local environment is at issue is often left uncomfortably vague.
The project aims to disentangle various arguments and appeals to embodiment, to assess the evidence for and against specific claims, and to canvass their potential importance for philosophy, cognitive science, and our self-image as a species.

Publications

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Andy Clark (Author) (2010) Cognitive Life of Things: Recasting the Boundaries of the Mind

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Andy Clark (Author) (2007) Distributed Cognition and the Will: Individual Volition and Social Context

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Andy Clark (Author) (2008) The Cambridge handbook of situated cognition

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Andy Clark (Author) (2012) The Cambridge Handbook of Cognitive Science

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Clark (2008) Supersizing the Mind: Embodiment, Action, and Cognitive Extension

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Clark A (2007) Re-inventing ourselves: the plasticity of embodiment, sensing, and mind. in The Journal of medicine and philosophy

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CLARK A (2008) Pressing the Flesh: A Tension in the Study of the Embodied, Embedded Mind?* in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research

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Clark A (2006) Language, embodiment, and the cognitive niche. in Trends in cognitive sciences

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Clark A (2006) That lonesome whistle: a puzzle for the sensorimotor model of perceptual experience in Analysis

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Clark A (2006) Material Symbols in Philosophical Psychology

 
Title Short film (with Michael Wheeler) 
Description A short filmed dialogue on topics concerning embodiment and mind was recorded with Dr Michael Wheeler (Stirling University). The film was commissioned by Jon Bird at Sussex and shown at the Dana Centre Café, London Science Museum (http://www.danacentre.org.uk/) in May 2006. 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2006 
Impact There was a very satisfying public engagement during the live showing of this product at the London Science Museum 
 
Description The aim of this 'matching research leave' grant (assessed as Outstanding by AHRC following the final report) was to complete a critical study of work on the embodied, interactive mind, presenting the results as a monograph (around 100,000 words). The key idea is that mind cannot be understood independently of the active body. A full draft of the projected monograph was completed as planned (Supersizing the Mind: Reflections on Embodiment, Action, and Cognitive Extension) and submitted to Oxford University Press - with whom the book later appeared.
Exploitation Route My work has been taken up by educationalists interested in the role of the body in learning, and by architects interested in the cognitive role of the constructed environment.
Sectors Creative Economy,Education
 
Description The aim of this short 'matching research leave' grant (assessed as Outstanding by AHRC following the final report) was to complete a critical study of work on the embodied, interactive mind, presenting the results as a monograph (around 100,000 words). This (and much more - see Key Findings section) was achieved But an unexpected opportunity for true public dissemination turned up in the form of a short filmed dialogue on topics concerning embodiment and mind with Dr Michael Wheeler (Stirling University). The film was commissioned by Jon Bird at Sussex and shown at the Dana Centre Café, London Science Museum (http://www.danacentre.org.uk/) in May 2006.
First Year Of Impact 2006
Sector Creative Economy,Education
Impact Types Cultural,Societal