ABSTRACT
The mind has an evolutionary history; it is an adaptation for coping with the environment. The mind is shaped by, dependent upon, and bound up with the body and its environment. Broadly construed, cognitivism is the view that cognitive processes consist of the manipulation of mental representations or symbols. In light of the prominent role of mental representations in the mainstream cognitivist view of cognition, it is not surprising that alternative theories of cognition or approaches to cognition will have something to say about mental representations. The embodied cognition and extended mind (EC-EM) approach to cognitive science is a work in progress, a work admitting of more conservative and more radical forms. If the EC-EM approach is to stand as an alternative to cognitivism, however, it will need a way of articulating its slogans in ways that are both plausible and interesting.
