A History of Distributed Cognition

'Where does the mind stop and the rest of the world begin?' ask philosophers Andy Clark and David Chalmers. Their response might at first seem surprising. They claim that the mind is not brain-bound. They compare solving where to put the piece of a puzzle through: using brain-based mental imagery; physical rotation by the hands; or using an on-screen graphic image. In each case, brain, hands and computer play a similar role in guiding behaviour and therefore, they conclude, should be counted as an integrated part of that cognitive process. Ed Hutchins' book Cognition in the Wild also makes a case for cognition as embodied and as extended into the material world through equipment and other social agents. Cognitive science more generally is accumulating evidence that we rely on features of the body and the world to supplement and structure our thinking in subtle and complex ways.

But this is not a new question. Humans have always used a variety of 'mind tools' to navigate their way through the world. This project will demonstrate the pervasiveness and variety of the expression of notions of distributed cognition from one period to another. One important strand is the history of the humours. Flowing through the vessels of every living organism, the humours were believed to link together brains, bodies and world. It was believed that they shaped physical and cognitive properties and that they were composed of the same four elements of which the world was made. From its origins in ancient Greece, this belief went on to influence medical and philosophical theories until the seventeenth century and beyond. Another important strand in the history of distributed cognition emerges from the Neoplatonic tradition which, drawing on its roots in Socratic 'midwifery', compares the offspring of the body, our children, with the offspring of the mind, our ideas, writings and inventions. A third model, which similarly influenced the Christian tradition, was the belief, shared in different ways by Platonists and Stoics, in the extension of psyche through the world as well as the body. Recognition of the social nature of cognition has an equally long history, from the prevalence in everyday Greek thought of dialogic models of mind via the the notion of one's friends as mirrors to one's soul in Plato's Alcibiades (and thence via Plutarch to Shakespeare) to Aristotle's insistence that both self-knowledge and self-love depend on our ability to use the minds of others as a 'second self'. So while technological innovations are revealing to us now the extent to which cognition is not just all in the head, this project will demonstrate that, just as humans have always relied on bodily and external resources, we have always developed theories, models and metaphors to make sense of the ways in which how we think is dependent on being in the world.

This pioneering project brings together scholars from across the disciplinary spectrum in order to track the expression of notions of distributed cognition in a wide range of historical, cultural and literary works from antiquity to the mid-twentieth century. The development of this research will be supported through a specially created series of online seminars that will act as a catalyst for workshop and online discussions; through research development workshops; and through an online framework that will assist the management of the collaborative development of the research. The project will produce a series of four books, two monographs, the four co-authored prefaces and at least three survey papers, the historical lecture series, the blog and the learning resources. These will collectively demonstrate the extent to which historical accounts offer us notions of the mind as constituted by brain, body and world. These insights from the humanities will then feed back into cognitive science, casting a new light on current definitions and debates.

Given the project's wide-reaching ramifications in terms of inviting a reconsideration of the nature of human cognition and the models that we use to express this, this project is not only of significance to a wide range of academic disciplines but also to human society in general. The paradigm of distributed cognition implies that as well as the sharing across cultures that humans' collective embodied nature leads to, this sharing is also contributed to, and modified by, the sociocultural and technological worlds in which live. This in turn invites a reconsideration of modern, as well as historical, social and cultural values.

The National Museum of Scotland will act as an intermediary for our impact strategy along with the Edinburgh International Science Festival. The lectures on the History of Distributed Cognition will aim to engage an adult audience in the findings of the project. As presenters will be invited to use artefacts from the NMS to illustrate their lectures they will be of interest to museum staff as well as museum visitors. The lectures will be followed by networking dinners with the presenters and project team members to which will be invited representatives from the NMS. This will help to strengthen the existing ties between the museum and the University of Edinburgh, potentially forging follow-on forms of collaboration. We will also aim to engage organisations with potential interest (for example, the RSA) and the media in the project themes and will include them in invitations to these events and dinners. The realisation of the extent to which humans' are necessarily not entirely autonomous individuals but are created by as well as creative of their natural, social and technological environments calls for a more connected understanding of the communities in which we live.

We will create an information booklet that will be designed to appeal to a general audience. Our development of an app in collaboration with the NMS will be aimed particularly, though not exclusively, at young adults. We are aware that in focusing on this group of beneficiaries we will need a good sense of the educational goals of the current Curriculum for Excellence in Scotland and also to draw on the input of non-governmental organisations that engage with young people. In order to achieve this, we will employ an experienced scientific communicator as a Research and Outreach Consultant (ROC) to advise us on the design and organisation of our approaches to, and interactions with, these organizations. Representatives from these organisations will also be invited to participate in the lectures and networking dinners. The ROC will also advise us on the design, style and content of the learning resources. The app form will appeal more to young adults than a paper quiz, and will be accessible not only at the NMS but also remotely via the project's online sites. In addition to the official project website hosted by the University of Edinburgh, we will have a more informal Facebook page, a twitter account and a hashtag. We will also monitor web traffic in order to ensure that we are successfully engaging with the public. The launching of the app and booklet at an event during the Edinburgh International Science Festival will help to engage a wide range of media and public attention.

We will explore the social and ethical impact of the project's findings and will pursue publicity with the assistance of the University Press Office in relation to this event and to our other impact activities as well as employing social media. More informal accounts of the project's research findings and significance to notions of human nature and society will be co-authored for the project blog by the PI, CI1, CI2 and RA. Through these multiple complementary means the project team aims to engage a wide range of extra-academic, as well as academic, people and organisations with our research and its wider ramifications.