ABSTRACT
As common in the more lively phases of scientific disciplines, the key concept of this book and of this chapter – embodied cognition – is not very well defined. Wilson (2002) has identified no less than six different meanings the concept has acquired in different writings, and this is arguably an underestimation. And yet, there certainly is quite some deal of overlap across approaches and authors, especially with regard to the shortcomings in cognitive theorizing that the concept is meant to overcome. As Wilson (2002, p. 625) summarizes,
There is a growing commitment to the idea that the mind must be understood in the context of its relationship to a physical body that interacts with the world. . . . Hence human cognition, rather than being centralized, abstract, and sharply distinct from peripheral input and output modules, may instead have deep roots in sensorimotor processing.
