ABSTRACT

This chapter debates surrounding the boundaries of the mind. It is concerned with the thesis discussed in the literature on the extended mind that the mechanisms that produce cognitive processes are not always located within the individual organism. The chapter utilizes the term “cognitive processes” to refer to the types of processes that are investigated in the cognitive sciences, broadly construed. It takes the term “cognition” to also encompass examples of what some would call “lower” or “basic” cognitive processes, such as sensorimotor coordination. The chapter sets aside questions about consciousness, for the extended mind was originally developed as limited in its scope to unconscious cognitive processes and dispositional mental states. It surveys these different waves in the extended cognition debate. The chapter aims to showcase the theoretical virtues of a third-wave approach to the extended mind. Defenders of the extended mind oppose a position we will label “internalism,” a term that covers a variety of different views.