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Chapter 22 - Is Consciousness Embodied?

from Part III - Empirical Developments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
Jesse Prinz
Edited by
Philip Robbins  and
Murat Aydede
Philip Robbins
Affiliation:
Washington University, St Louis
Murat Aydede
Affiliation:
University of Florida
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Summary

To say that consciousness is embodied is to say that consciousness depends either on the existence of processes in the body outside the head or on somatic or enactive processes that may be inside the head. It is possible to think that consciousness is embodied in some sense without accepting strong versions of the hypothesis that consciousness is situated. When interpreted as a thesis about constitution, situated consciousness is a very radical hypothesis; it says that the environment is a component of our conscious experiences. If perception of the body constitutes a form of self-consciousness, then it is also plausible that experiences of the body contribute to the sense of ownership that inheres in ordinary perceptual experience. Practitioners argue that orthodox conceptions of the mind will be completely undermined once a place for body and world in mental life is recognized.

Keywords

gesturesimaginary actionperceptionspatial thinkingspace of navigation
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Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Situated Cognition , pp. 419 - 436
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

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