체화된 인지의 개념 지도: 두뇌의 경계를 넘어서 = A Concept Map of Embodied Cognition: Beyond the Brain

Abstract

Since the advent of cognitive science, it has been dominated by two research programs: symbolism and connectionism. These programs have made possible the understanding of human cognition in a scientific way, but they have also been gradually understood as separating living cognition from the body and its environment by considering cognition as a form of computer program or as a pattern of activities in a massive neural network. Recently, a new research program, the theory of embodied cognition, has been emerging and is being discussed actively in cognitive science. At the present stage, the theory of embodied cognition does not have the systematicity of academic theory but remains only a set of theories, and its elements have different names. It is necessary to draw a conceptual map for those theories of embodied cognition before we have a unified theory. The purpose of this paper is to examine the four theories of embodied cognition as a research program in cognitive science and to draw a conceptual map of the embodied cognition. In section 2, this paper will discuss the background from which theories of embodied cognition have emerged in cognitive science. In section 3, this paper will discuss and compare the so-called “4 E’s,” the four theories of embodied cognition -namely, theoriesof embodied cognition in a narrow sense, extended cognition, embedded cognition, and enactive cognition. In section 4, this paper will suggest a concept map of the embodied cognition that mirrors the previous discussions and also suggest a brief prospect of embodimentism as a research program.