Itay Shani (Kyung Hee University) - 'Stressing the Flesh: In Defence of Strong Embodied Cognition'

Type: 
Lecture
Audience: 
CEU Community Only
Building: 
Zrinyi u. 14
Room: 
412
Monday, June 16, 2014 - 3:00pm
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Date: 
Monday, June 16, 2014 - 3:00pm to 4:30pm

The CEU Department of Philosophy cordially invites you to a talk

by

Itay Shani (Kyung Hee University)

on

Stressing the Flesh: In Defence of Strong Embodied Cognition

Monday, 16 June 2014, 3.00 PM, Zrinyi 14, Room 412

 

ABSTRACT

Embodied cognition is a rapidly progressing framework of research within contemporary cognitive science. Yet, the theoretical foundations of this framework, and its philosophical commitments and implications, are a matter of some dispute. In this talk I argue in favour of a “strong” interpretation of embodied cognition, namely, in favour of the view that the formative contribution of the body to the making of our mental lives is abiding and irreplaceable. It might be thought that the whole point of moving towards an embodied paradigm of cognition is to stress the existence of such a strong linkage between embodiment and mentality, yet this contention is elegantly challenged by Andy Clark (2008). According to Clark, the role of the body in the making of one’s mental life consists of its contribution to the realization of an extended functional-computational process. Such a process, he argues, can be fluidly and flexibly realized by different configurations of coupling relations between brain, body, and world, from which it follows that any specific bodily contribution is but a contingent, negotiable fact. The bulk of this talk is a response to Clark’s challenge. Focusing on consciousness in particular, I argue that the contribution the body makes to a creature’s manifold of phenomenal experience is unique and cannot be compensated for, in the manner, and on the scale, which Clark envisages.