Distributed Cognition and the Humanities

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Miranda Anderson ◽  
Michael Wheeler ◽  
Mark Sprevak
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Distributed Cognition ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Cognitive Sciences ◽  
Enactive Cognition ◽  
Arts And Humanities ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Actual Nature ◽  
4E Cognition

The general introduction, which is replicated across all four volumes, aims to orientate readers unfamiliar with this area of research. It provides an overview of the different approaches within the distributed cognition framework and discussion of the value of a distributed cognitive approach to the humanities. A distributed cognitive approach recognises that cognition is brain, body and world based. Distributed cognition is a methodological approach and a way of understanding the actual nature of cognition. The first section provides an overview of the various competing and sometimes conflicting theories that make up the distributed cognition framework and which are also collectively known as 4E cognition: embodied, embedded, extended and enactive cognition. The second section examines the ways in which humanities topics and methodologies are compatible with, placed in question or revitalised by new insights from philosophy of mind and the cognitive sciences on the distributed nature of cognition, and considers what the arts and humanities, in turn, offer to philosophy and cognitive science.

Distributed Cognition and the Humanities

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Miranda Anderson ◽  
Michael Wheeler ◽  
Mark Sprevak
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Distributed Cognition ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Cognitive Sciences ◽  
Enactive Cognition ◽  
Arts And Humanities ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Actual Nature ◽  
4E Cognition

The general introduction, which is replicated across all four volumes, aims to orientate readers unfamiliar with this area of research. It provides an overview of the different approaches within the distributed cognition framework and discussion of the value of a distributed cognitive approach to the humanities. A distributed cognitive approach recognises that cognition is brain, body and world based. Distributed cognition is a methodological approach and a way of understanding the actual nature of cognition. The first section provides an overview of the various competing and sometimes conflicting theories that make up the distributed cognition framework and which are also collectively known as 4E cognition: embodied, embedded, extended and enactive cognition. The second section examines the ways in which humanities topics and methodologies are compatible with, placed in question or revitalised by new insights from philosophy of mind and the cognitive sciences on the distributed nature of cognition, and considers what the arts and humanities, in turn, offer to philosophy and cognitive science.

Distributed Cognition and the Humanities

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Miranda Anderson ◽  
Michael Wheeler ◽  
Mark Sprevak
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Distributed Cognition ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Cognitive Sciences ◽  
Enactive Cognition ◽  
Arts And Humanities ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Actual Nature ◽  
4E Cognition

The general introduction, which is replicated across all four volumes, aims to orientate readers unfamiliar with this area of research. It provides an overview of the different approaches within the distributed cognition framework and discussion of the value of a distributed cognitive approach to the humanities. A distributed cognitive approach recognises that cognition is brain, body and world based. Distributed cognition is a methodological approach and a way of understanding the actual nature of cognition. The first section provides an overview of the various competing and sometimes conflicting theories that make up the distributed cognition framework and which are also collectively known as 4E cognition: embodied, embedded, extended and enactive cognition. The second section examines the ways in which humanities topics and methodologies are compatible with, placed in question or revitalised by new insights from philosophy of mind and the cognitive sciences on the distributed nature of cognition, and considers what the arts and humanities, in turn, offer to philosophy and cognitive science.

Distributed Cognition in Medieval and Renaissance Studies

2019 ◽  
pp. 18-43
Author(s):  
Miranda Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Distributed Cognition ◽  
Art Music ◽  
The Body ◽  
Cognitive Sciences ◽  
Research Context ◽  
Renaissance Studies

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a background to current research in medieval and Renaissance studies on topics related to distributed cognition and to consider how the various chapters in this volume represent, reflect and advance work in this area. The volume brings together 14 chapters by international specialists working in the period between the ninth and the seventeenth century in the fields of law, history, drama, literature, art, music, philosophy, science and medicine. The chapters revitalise our reading of medieval and Renaissance works by bringing to bear recent insights in cognitive science and philosophy of mind on the distributed nature of cognition. Together the chapters make evident the ways in which particular notions and practices of distributed cognition emerged from the particular range of sociocultural and technological contexts that existed during this period. This chapter attempts to put these contributions in their wider research context by examining how such topics have been approached by mainstream scholarship, earlier work in the cognitive sciences and by existing applications of distributed cognition theory. It draws out both more general features of distributed cognition and what was distinctive about medieval and Renaissance insights into (and superstitions about) the cognitive roles of the body and environment. Throughout this chapter, I reference the chapters in this volume that provide further information on topics covered or take forward the issues in question. In the concluding section, I turn to a fuller overview of the chapters themselves

4E Cognition and the Humanities

2018 ◽  
pp. 874-890
Author(s):  
Amy Cook
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Arts And Humanities ◽  
The Arts ◽  
4E Cognition ◽  
And Performance

The arts and humanities move us and change our minds—not just metaphorically but literally. This chapter provides a snapshot of some of the work that has occurred at the intersection of cognitive science and theater and literature. I provide a description and analysis of a theatrical experience that staged a challenge to traditional theories of cognition, demonstrating how artists are responding to and prodding work being done across the disciplines. If thinking is “world-making,” rather than processing stimuli into meaning, then the hermeneutic tradition of literary and art scholarship must adapt. If thinking means using objects in our environment in order to make changes to our own extended ecosystem, then an interaction with a work of art can be aesthetic, poetic, and autopoetic. Contemporary art, literature, and performance may suggest a new language—and a richer perspective on old language—for 4E cognition.

scholarly journals Imaginative Leadership: A Conceptual Frame for the Design and Facilitation of Creative Methods and Generative Engagement

2021 ◽  
pp. 165-204
Author(s):  
Kelli R. Pearson
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Sustainability Science ◽  
Cognitive Sciences ◽  
Metaphorical Thinking ◽  
Conceptual Frame ◽  
Arts And Humanities ◽  
Creative Methods ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Action And Perception ◽  
Unconventional Methods

AbstractIn the field of sustainability science, many scholars and practitioners are embracing a ‘humanistic turn’ that draws from psychology and cognitive sciences and from the arts and humanities. Contributing to a spirit of ‘exuberant experimentation’ in the field, this chapter asks: How can creative methods of engagement be operationalized to support the imaginative capacity of researchers and practitioners in the arena of sustainability? In order to address this question, I (a) propose the concept of imaginative leadership to describe the ability to understand and consciously influence the symbolic/metaphorical dimensions of self and others, and (b) explore the process of designing workshops that employ creative methods rooted in ‘transformative mindsets.’ Transformative mindsets refer to specific conceptual frames identified for their potential to disrupt default unsustainable and anthropocentric worldviews and open new spaces of possibility for action and perception. The broad goal of these workshops was to support imaginative leadership towards regenerative sustainability through collaborative experimentation with unconventional methods. Informed by research on metaphorical thinking, somatics, neurocognitive linguistics, and arts-based environmental education, the methods were designed to activate a set of specific transformative mindsets, which were subsequently refined through the process of experimentation and co-reflection during and after the workshops.

scholarly journals The Naturalist Turn in Literary and Art Study: Two-Way Interdisciplinarity and the Sciences of Mind

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 277
Author(s):  
Patricia Kolaiti
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Scientific Method ◽  
Scientific Theory ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
Cognitive Neuropsychology ◽  
Arts And Humanities ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Science Philosophy ◽  
Epistemological Framework

<p><em>In recent years, a bourgeoning area of paradigm-revising scholarly investigation involves what could be referred to as a “Naturalist” or “Cognitive” turn in literary and art study, exploring the interface between theory in the arts and humanities and scientific theory of the type produced in disciplines belonging to the empirical and cognitive paradigm such as linguistics, cognitive science, philosophy of mind and cognitive neuropsychology. In this paper, I will discuss a range of theoretical, epistemic and methodological issues raised by such an interdisciplinary enterprise including the possibility of a genuine methodological merger with the cognitive paradigm, the plea for psychological realism, the extent to which the scientific method is compatible with the nature of literature and art as an investigative object and the need for genuine, two-way interdisciplinary practices in literary and art study. I will also briefly consider the role Relevance Theory might have to play in this interdisciplinary venture as both a pragmatic and epistemological framework.</em></p>

“Tradition,” Vernacularism, and Learning to Be a Folk Musician With Social Media

2020 ◽  
pp. 442-466
Author(s):  
Simon Keegan-Phipps ◽  
Lucy Wright
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Folk Music ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
Arts And Humanities ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Shaping

This chapter considers the role of social media (broadly conceived) in the learning experiences of folk musicians in the Anglophone West. The chapter draws on the findings of the Digital Folk project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK), and begins by summarizing and problematizing the nature of learning as a concept in the folk music context. It briefly explicates the instructive, appropriative, and locative impacts of digital media for folk music learning before exploring in detail two case studies of folk-oriented social media: (1) the phenomenon of abc notation as a transmissive media and (2) the Mudcat Café website as an example of the folk-oriented discussion forum. These case studies are shown to exemplify and illuminate the constructs of traditional transmission and vernacularism as significant influences on the social shaping and deployment of folk-related media technologies. The chapter concludes by reflecting on the need to understand the musical learning process as a culturally performative act and to recognize online learning mechanisms as sites for the (re)negotiation of musical, cultural, local, and personal identities.

scholarly journals Redefining peer learning: Role of student entrepreneurs in teaching entrepreneurship in the UK higher education context

2021 ◽  
pp. 095042222110126
Author(s):  
Stella Xu ◽  
Zimu Xu ◽  
Fujia Li ◽  
Arun Sukumar
Keyword(s):  
Student Engagement ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
School Students ◽  
Arts And Humanities ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Student Entrepreneurs ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Uk Higher Education

Entrepreneurship-related modules have become increasingly popular over the years, not only among business school students but also among those from other disciplines, including engineering and the arts and humanities. In some circumstances, they are offered as optional modules for students across different faculties and disciplines. While it is beneficial to mix students with different backgrounds, bringing in a wide range of perspectives, there are also challenges relating to course design and student engagement. With these challenges in mind, the authors trialled a new approach in the hope of motivating students from diverse academic and socio-cultural backgrounds to engage more fully in the classroom by utilising student entrepreneurs as guest speakers. The student-centric approach has proved effective in enhancing student engagement, as evidenced by both informal and formal feedback.

scholarly journals Geopoetics: Storytelling against mastery

2021 ◽  
pp. 204382062098639
Author(s):  
Aya Nassar
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Open Space ◽  
Arts And Humanities ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The World

In this engagement with Eric Magrane’s article, ‘Climate Geopolitics (The Earth is a Composted Poem)’, I follow two provocations: first, geopoetics as travelling through disciplinary turfs, and second, geopoetics as storytelling. Coming from a disciplinary trajectory that spent a long stop at international relations (IR), these provocations attach me to geopoetics as practice and a growing field. My engagement here is oriented to geopoetics not only at the threshold of geography and the arts and humanities, but also the intersections of geography and politics. I primarily propose that viewing geopoetics as an open space for experimenting allows for disrupting masterful understandings of the academic self and counters a univocal, universal narrative of the world.

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