Supersizing the Mind
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an important book for all cognitive-science theorists of all stripes... Supersizing the Mind will set the terms for many of the coming debates (Evan Thompson, Times Literary Supplement )
Supersizing the Mind is a treat to read. It is brimming with remarkable ideas, novel insights and amusing language. (Melvyn Goodale, Nature )
[A] brilliant new book... Dave Chalmers...offers a terrific introduction... Supersizing the Mind provides the best argument I've seen for the idea that minds are smeared over more space than neuroscience might have us believe (Owen Flanagan, New Scientist ) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Supersizing the Mind is a treat to read. It is brimming with remarkable ideas, novel insights and amusing language. (Melvyn Goodale, Nature )
[A] brilliant new book... Dave Chalmers...offers a terrific introduction... Supersizing the Mind provides the best argument I've seen for the idea that minds are smeared over more space than neuroscience might have us believe (Owen Flanagan, New Scientist ) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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When historian Charles Weiner found pages of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman's notes, he saw it as a "record" of Feynman's work. Feynman himself, however, insisted that the notes were not a record but the work itself. In Supersizing the Mind , Andy Clark argues that our thinking doesn't happen only in our heads but that "certain forms of human cognizing include inextricable tangles of feedback, feed-forward and feed-around loops: loops that promiscuously criss-cross the boundaries of brain, body and world." The pen and paper of Feynman's thought are just such feedback loops, physical machinery that shape the flow of thought and enlarge the boundaries of mind. Drawing upon recent work in psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, robotics, human-computer systems, and beyond, Supersizing the Mind offers both a tour of the emerging cognitive landscape and a sustained argument in favor of a conception of mind that is extended rather than "brain-bound." The importance of this new perspective is profound. If our minds themselves can include aspects of our social and physical environments, then the kinds of social and physical environments we create can reconfigure our minds and our capacity for thought and reason. "brilliant...[providing] the best argument I've seen for the idea that minds are smeared over more space than neuroscience might have us believe" - New Scientist " Supersizing the Mind is an important book for cognitive-science theorists of all stripes.... Although traditional and radical theorists are likely to remain unconvinced, there can be no doubt that Supersizing the Mind will set the terms for many of the coming debates."-- Times Literary Supplement "...it offers original thinking in the philosophy of mind, and it is highly recommended for academic collections in that subject."-- Library Journal "In Supersizing the Mind, philosopher Andy Clark makes the compelling argument that the mind extends beyond the body to include the tools, symbols and other artefacts we deploy to engage the world.... Supersizing the Mind is a treat to read. It is brimming with remarkable ideas, novel insights and amusing language."--Nature
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I've been prompted to write this review as the only other review at the moment awards the book 1 star, and for a grossly unfair reason. While the book is probably not ideal for a complete beginner to the area, the synposis in the 'product description' in no way advertises it as such. Furthermore, Clark writes with a fantastic level of clarity, littering his prose with examples, explanations, footnotes for further exploration, and diagrams where appropriate - something I find lacking in some similar books. Having read only this book in depth, I can't comment on whether another of his books might be better suited to an introductory text, but I can certainly say that with the prerequisite time and patience required for reading any good philosophy/psychology/cognitive science book, this book will provide an interesting and clear insight into the area via a well written and structured text.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Anyone familiar with the field of cognitive science will likely have read about, or at least heard about, the concept of "the extended mind", which claims that some parts of the environment (e.g. notebooks, pocket calculators, etc) are just as much a part of the mind as the brain. And in that way the mind is extended to include objects and processes that are outside the brain. The concept originates from Andy Clark and David Chalmers, who published a well-known paper in 1998, titled The Extended Mind. This book expands upon that paper and attempts to address many of the objections that have arisen.
Overall, this is an interesting and well-written book. However, it loses 1 star because the first half of the book is largely irrelevant to the extended mind and is more about the body.
Overall, this is an interesting and well-written book. However, it loses 1 star because the first half of the book is largely irrelevant to the extended mind and is more about the body.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is seriously cutting-edge philosophy of mind but should prove fun to read, informative and thought-provoking as long as you already have some background knowledge of psychology and related topics. It provides the most compelling case I have come across in favour of the so-called 'embodied mind' approach which is based on the thinking of philosophers Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty and was subsequently developed by a whole range of psychologists and others, including Francesco Varela. On this view, our minds are not functions of our brains alone but also incorporate many aspects of our bodies and environments, especially social environments. There's lots of evidence in its favour, as Andy Clark describes in depth, leading to a much clearer understanding of the nature of our minds than other approaches can offer. Even Artificial Intelligence experts, who used to think of mind in purely computastional terms, are now taking it seriously. If I have any criticism it is that, although Clark's approach plainly connects with dynamic systems theory, he rather skates over the additional insights that this might provide.
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