How to study the mind: An introduction to embodied cognition

Embodied Cognition (EC) is a comprehensive approach to, and framework for, the study of the mind. EC treats cognition as a coordinated set of tools evolved by organisms for coping with their environments. Each of the key terms in this characterization—tool, evolved, organism, coping, and environment—has a special significance for understanding the mind that is discussed in this article. Although it is typical to introduce the embodied cognition thesis with a litany of criticism of current approaches to the mind, I should like, with this article, to say publicly that I believe this method to be unnecessary and obsolete. Embodied cognition (EC) is a comprehensive approach to, and framework for, the study of the mind, and it has reached a level of maturity where it is no longer necessary to justify it with reference to the problems and oversights of some different, presumably more respectable, approach. As with any scientific paradigm, EC has a history, and the interested reader is encouraged to consult (Anderson, 2003; Clark, 1997; Cowart, 2004; Wilson, 2002) to begin to get some idea of that history. This article, however, is not about, and will not trace, the origins of EC, nor will it describe EC as an alternative to other theories of mind—for although it is clear that EC is not currently the dominant paradigm for understanding the mind, it is equally clear that it is ascendant, and it promises soon to be the predominant approach. Thus, this article will outline what EC is in itself, and thereby outline how one should— and how most of us soon will—study the mind.