Does the Mind Extend into the Environment?

8 Questions

What is required for an affordance to be significant?

reliability, credibility and durability.

How does music challenge the skull/body barrier?

We form ourself through social articulation with other's, and have minimal difficulties distinguishing ourselves from them. So the indirect social articulation of music should be no different.

What is the connection between the abacus and the Archimedes, as discussed in the passage?

Examples of historical affordances that extended innovation.

How is access consciousness extended by the environment?

Through interconnected processes enhancing conscious flexibility.

How does music contribute to extending phenomenal experiences?

By shaping identity and how you feel depends on how you identify.

What is the potential issue related to the core of the skull/body barrier critique?

That the unconsciously internalized mind frame at the core of the critique stems from the myriad of androcentric and/or anthroprocentric literature.

How can video games extend access consciousness via conscious flexibility?

By improving, perceptional acuity, rationality and access memory.

What is the main argument presented in the passage about the mind extending into the environment?

The mind can extend its capabilities through affordances in the environment.

Study Notes

The Extended Mind

The mind extends from the skull via affordances (using tools) within the environment.
Access consciousness is extended by interconnected processes improving cognitive flexibility.
Phenomenal consciousness is extended by somatic processes elevating 'what it feels like'.

Evolution of Affordances

Acheulean (tool industry) up to 1.5mya.
Hand-Abacus, 500BCE.
Archimedes box, a dissection puzzle, 287BCE.

Cognitive Flexibility and Video Games

Cognitive flexibility is extended by some video games.
Strategy, spatial awareness, attention, and multitasking are improved.
Memory is also enhanced.

Music and Phenomenal Experiences

Music amplifies and shapes our internal states and external representation in/of the world.
Music is a tool for offloading, processing, and expressing emotions and 'what it feels like' to be.
Edwards et al. (2015) concluded that music enhances emotional attunement, introspection, and intersubjective connectivity.

Ambiguity of Extended Mind

The skull barrier raises the question of where the boundary lies.
If everything is an affordance, then nothing can be.

Cognitive Overload / Skull Barrier

Not every affordance is statistically significant.
Access to all web files discounts the credibility and trust that affordances require to be a constitute.
This critic misrepresents the truth of extended minds.