Introduction: The Extended Mind in Focus
Introduction: The Extended Mind in Focus
This book explores and examines the nature and study of mind and cognition as presented in an essay by Andy Clark and David Chalmers published in Analysis in 1998. Provoking much debate about the subject, the essay’s main theories are presented in the following chapters, together with their criticisms and developments. Clark and Chalmers propose an “active externalism” that is to be differentiated from traditional externalism; it is concerned with the active role of the environment in driving cognitive processes. The active nature of this externalism is explained in terms of the notion of causal coupling, which states that the human organism is reciprocally linked with an external entity. This link creates a coupled system that can be seen as a cognitive system in its own right.
Keywords: study of mind, cognition, Andy Clark, David Chalmers, active externalism, traditional externalism, cognitive processes, causal coupling
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