The New Science of the Mind - 9780262518581

There is a new way of thinking about the mind that does not locate mental processesexclusively "in the head." Some think that this expanded conception of the mind will bethe basis of a new science of the mind. In this book, leading philosopher Mark Rowlands investigatesthe conceptual foundations of this new science of the mind. The new way of thinking about the mindemphasizes the ways in which mental processes are embodied (made up partly of extraneural bodilystructures and processes), embedded (designed to function in tandem with the environment), enacted(constituted in part by action), and extended (located in the environment). The new way of thinkingabout the mind, Rowlands writes, is actually an old way of thinking that has taken on new form.Rowlands describes a conception of mind that had its clearest expression in phenomenology -- in thework of Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, and Merleau-Ponty. He builds on these views, clarifies andrenders consistent the ideas of embodied, embedded, enacted, and extended mind, and develops aunified philosophical treatment of the novel conception of the mind that underlies the new scienceof the mind.