Extended mind
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The Extended Mind is the name of a concept in the philosophy of mind which states that some objects in the external environment are so heavily used by the mind, that they become part of the mind. The central paper in this field is The Extended Mind, by Andy Clark and David Chalmers. In this paper they present the idea of active externalism, (similar to semantic or "content" externalism,) in which parts of the environment become part of the mind.
Chalmers and Clark argue that it is arbitrary to say that the mind's boundaries are that of the skull. Since external objects play a significant role in "driving cognitive processes", the mind and the environment are a "tightly coupled" system. Therefore, the mind extends into the world. Although mental states are renowned for being hard to define or explain, the Extended mind is one of the few theories on the location and boundaries of the mind to reach popularity among philosophers.
In The Extended Mind, a thought experiment is created to illustrate the environment's role in the mind. Otto and Inga are both travelling to the museum, but Otto has alzheimers, and has written all of his instructions down on a piece of paper, while Inga has her instructions in memory. In this example it appears to be just as easy to say that Otto knew the location of the museum before looking at his paper, as it is to say that Ingrid knew the location of the museum before referencing her memory.
[edit] External links
- http://consc.net/papers/extended.html - Chalmers and Clark's paper
