The Extended Mind

Where does cognition end?

The Parity Principle

Inga remembers the museum's address and goes. Otto, whose biological memory falters, consults his notebook and goes. Clark and Chalmers argue: for all relevant functional purposes, Otto's notebook is part of his memory.

Parity: if a process inside the skull counts as cognition, a relevantly similar process outside the skull counts too. The boundary is functional, not anatomical.

Adams & Aizawa object: causal contribution is not constitution. Your car helps you arrive; it is not part of your mind. Genuine cognition requires intrinsic, non-derived content.

Four cases follow. At each, decide: does this resource extend the mind, or merely assist it?

The Four Cases

Case 1

The Shopping List

The simplest case. Paper, ink, pocket. You wrote it; you trust it; you act on it without re-deriving each item.

Read-only view — contact the owner for write access to record your position.

The Landscape of Positions

No positions recorded yet. Be the first to take a stance.