# Concept: Embodied Cognition ## Summary Embodied cognition is the idea that *thinking arises through bodily experience*. Rather than being abstract, disembodied, or purely computational, human thought is shaped by sensation, movement, context, and affect. To understand something is to have lived through or within it—not merely to compute it. ## Definition Embodied cognition challenges the classical "mind-as-computer" metaphor. It holds that: - **Cognition is shaped by the body**: Our physical form and sensorimotor systems condition how we perceive, conceptualize, and act. - **Meaning is situated**: Knowing is not just about propositions—it emerges through context, intention, and interaction. - **Emotion and affect matter**: Rationality is not separate from feeling, but intertwined with it. - **Language is metaphorical and embodied**: Even abstract reasoning is scaffolded by physical and social experience (Lakoff & Johnson). This stands in contrast to [[computational thinking|computational]] models of cognition, which abstract away from embodiment in favor of symbolic manipulation. ## Properties - **Sensorimotor grounding**: Thought is rooted in bodily perception and interaction. - **Situated meaning**: Knowledge emerges from context, not in isolation. - **Temporal/affective texture**: Embodied thought includes memory, emotion, rhythm, and pace. - **Non-symbolic processing**: Much of human knowing is pre-linguistic or analogical. - **Narrative structure**: Understanding is often storied, not just logical. ## Citations & Source Fragments - Varela, Thompson, Rosch — *The Embodied Mind* (1991): “Mind is not in the head alone, but in the body and the world.” - Lakoff & Johnson — *Philosophy in the Flesh* (1999): “The mind is inherently embodied. Thought is mostly unconscious. Abstract concepts are largely metaphorical.” - Merleau-Ponty — *Phenomenology of Perception* (1945): “The body is our general medium for having a world.” - Hubert Dreyfus — *What Computers Can’t Do* (1972): Critiques symbolic AI, emphasizes skillful coping and context-sensitive understanding. --- > [!info]- Wayfinding > - Contributes to: > - In response to: [[what remains human|What remains human in a world of thinking machines?]] > - Builds on: [[Cognitive Sovereignty]], [[Epistimic Boundaries]], [[Design Ethics of Mind]] > - Developed alongside: [[thinking, computing, simulating]] > - ChangeLog >> - [[2025-04-25-Friday]] - idea and sources captured