Week 4: Interpretivism and 4E cognition Flashcards
What is the extended mind hypothesis?
Suggests that cognition extends beyond our brains and bodies. It is based on the parity principle which argues that processes that exist outside of our skulls but have the same purpose and happen by the same principles as congitive processes inside our skull, should be considered as part of our cognitive system too. The complementarity principles says that what counts is the fact that certain objects and porcesses outside your head complement the processes inside.
What is the difference between the extended mind hypothesis and functionalism?
The extended mind hypothesis comes up with cognition in broadly functionalist terms, but the difference is that in the extended mind hypothesis the realization basis is the brain together with a part of the body and the environment. In functionalism, mental states are defined as functional roles, and their physical realizers do not matter.
What is radically embodied embedded cognition?
Conceives the mind and cognition mainly as being constituted by the dynamic interaction between the lived body of the organism and its ecological and socio-cultural environment, so they see neural processes as part of the interactions that constitute cognition.
Perception –> Cognitive –> Action
What is the sandwich model of cognition?
Perception is regarded as only input from the world into the mind, and action as just output from the mind to the world, and that cognition is sandwiched in between.
By rejecting the sandwich model radical ECC view perception as more than passive representation, but as a form of action. Perceptual experience is structured in terms of interactions with the environment, which in turn is central to the sensorimotor theory of perception.
What is the sensorimotor theory of perception?
Because you have continuous access to the environment, it seems as if you are in direct contact with it, which leads to confusion that there is an experience of the environment in your head all along. In reality, the feeling is due to your implicit knowledge of the sensorimotor contingencies (i.e. movements of eyes, head, and body lead to new detail and information).
What is the enactivist theory of cognition?
The enactivist theory of cognition is like the sensorimotor theory of perception in that they both think that cognition is essentially action-oriented and that notions of perception as passive representation is wrong.
However, there is also an emphasis on three interrelated conceptions:
1. Experience: cognition needs to be based on careful analysis of experience and enactivism thus says that phenomenology should constrain the explanations of cognitive science by providing good descriptions of the explanandum (what we want to explain).
2. Autonomy: a system is able to generate and maintain its own identity in relation to the environment.
3. Sense-making: an autonomous system produces a domain of meaning and value in its environment, relative to its needs (opportunities and threats).
