When Minds Won’t Stay Put:
A Review of Andy Clark’s Book Supersizing the Mind: Embodiment, Action, and Cognitive Extension
by Seth Miller
Ask your neighbor: “If you had to locate your mind, where would you point?” In all likelihood, the overwhelming response will be a finger on the cranium. Ask Andy Clark, a professor of Philosophy in the School of Philosophy, Psychology, and Language Sciences at Edinburgh University in Scotland, and you might see him point to his mouth, his hands, and even occasionally to objects in the world such as pencils and notebooks. By way of explaining this seemingly odd behavior, Clark might shrug and hand you his newest book, Supersizing the Mind: Embodiment, Action, and Cognitive Extension (Clark, 2008).
In this work (StM), Clark attempts to flesh out (pardon the pun) the thesis that (more…)