Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 1752 (373):1-9 (2018)
Authors |
|
Abstract |
A growing body of evidence suggests that cognition is embodied and grounded. Abstract concepts, though, remain a significant theoretical chal- lenge. A number of researchers have proposed that language makes an important contribution to our capacity to acquire and employ concepts, particularly abstract ones. In this essay, I critically examine this suggestion and ultimately defend a version of it. I argue that a successful account of how language augments cognition should emphasize its symbolic properties and incorporate a view of embodiment that recognizes the flexible, multi- modal and task-related nature of action, emotion and perception systems. On this view, language is an ontogenetically disruptive cognitive technology that expands our conceptual reach.
|
Keywords | Mind Cognition Embodied Cognition Concepts Semantic Memory Neuroscience |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
Options |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Download options
References found in this work BETA
Computation and Cognition: Toward a Foundation for Cognitive Science.Zenon W. Pylyshyn - 1984 - Cambridge: MIT Press.
The Meaning of 'Meaning'.Hillary Putnam - 1975 - Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science 7:131-193.
Perceptual Symbol Systems.Lawrence W. Barsalou - 1999 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 22 (4):577-660.
View all 48 references / Add more references
Citations of this work BETA
Culturally Embedded Schemata for False Belief Reasoning.Leda Berio - 2020 - Synthese (Special Issue: THE CULTURAL EVOL):1-30.
Sociality to Reach Objects and to Catch Meaning.Chiara Fini & Anna M. Borghi - 2019 - Frontiers in Psychology 10.
Predictive minds can think: addressing generality and surface compositionality of thought.Sofiia Rappe - 2022 - Synthese 200 (1):1-22.
How Abstract (Non-Embodied) Linguistic Representations Augment Cognitive Control.Nikola A. Kompa & Jutta L. Mueller - 2020 - Frontiers in Psychology 11.
Il linguaggio come collante tra menti individuali e socialità umana.Filippo Batisti - 2019 - In Gaia Bagnati, Alice Morelli & Melania Cassan (eds.), Le varietà del naturalismo. Venezia VE, Italia: Edizioni Ca' Focari. pp. 171-179.
View all 6 citations / Add more citations
Similar books and articles
Three Symbol Ungrounding Problems: Abstract Concepts and the Future of Embodied Cognition.Guy Dove - 2016 - Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 4 (23):1109-1121.
Thinking in Words: Language as an Embodied Medium of Thought.Guy Dove - 2014 - Topics in Cognitive Science 6 (3):371-389.
Embodying Artifact Production Knowledge.Susanna Melkonian-Altshuler - 2018 - Proceedings of a Body of Knowledge, Access at Https://Escholarship.Org/Uc/Item/92j9b1j0.
The Conceptual Mind: New Directions in the Study of Concepts.Eric Margolis & Stephen Laurence (eds.) - 2015 - MIT Press.
Embodied Conceivability: How to Keep the Phenomenal Concept Strategy Grounded.Guy Dove & Andreas Elpidorou - 2016 - Mind and Language 31 (5):580-611.
Embodied Cognition: Grounded Until Further Notice?Cory Wright - 2008 - British Journal of Psychology 99:157-164.
What is This Cognition That is Supposed to Be Embodied?Ken Aizawa - 2015 - Philosophical Psychology 28 (6):755-775.
Language and Embodiment.Claudia Scorolli & Anna Borghi - 2008 - Anthropology and Philosophy 9 (1-2):7-23.
Editors' Introduction: Abstract Concepts: Structure, Processing, and Modeling.Marianna Bolognesi & Gerard Steen - 2018 - Topics in Cognitive Science 10 (3):490-500.
Embodied Cognition and Theory of Mind.Shannon Spaulding - 2014 - In Lawrence Shapiro (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Embodied Cognition. Routledge. pp. 197-206.
Analytics
Added to PP index
2019-01-30
Total views
271 ( #39,082 of 2,498,775 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
24 ( #36,194 of 2,498,775 )
2019-01-30
Total views
271 ( #39,082 of 2,498,775 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
24 ( #36,194 of 2,498,775 )
How can I increase my downloads?
Downloads