Embodied Cognition

Undergraduate

This course critically examines approaches in the philosophy of mind and cognitive science that see our psychological capacities as importantly dependent on our bodily form and abilities, and our environmental surroundings. We will examine how this view of mind as essentially ‘embodied and embedded’ arose in reaction to the classical ‘cognitivist’ paradigm in cognitive science that understands psychological capacities in terms of computational processes implemented by the brain, consider various ways in which the body and environment might contribute to explanations of cognition, and look at the prospects and challenges for embodied cognitive science in various domains.