Philosophy of Mind, Part 6: The Extended Mind

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TITLE: Philosophy of Mind

DESCRIPTION
Philosophy of mind explores the nature of consciousness, our personal thoughts, and our mental states. In addition, how does the mind relate to the body, and how are we affected by life experience? One of the pillars of this topic is understanding what causes us to act: how our desires, beliefs, intentions, and emotions translate into physical behavior. We will review both ancient and modern ideas in this series of 7 dialogues.

Part 6: The Extended Mind

DESCRIPTION

This week, we begin with the extended mind thesis, introduced by Clark and Chalmers in 1998. This theory proposes that the mind is not confined to the brain or body; rather, it can extend into the environment through external tools that support our thinking, such as notebooks and computers. A modern example is your smartphone’s photo gallery, which functions as an external memory bank, allowing you to recall people and places you might otherwise forget.

Next, we will explore the concept of qualia, which refers to the first-person experiences of conscious states. Our perceptions of the world include many subjective qualities—such as the redness of an apple, the taste of coffee, and the warmth of sunlight on your skin. These are not merely physical processes in the brain; they are the felt qualities of experience.

Finally, we will bring these ideas together to consider the epistemic future of humans in a world shaped by AI technology. If our cognition extends into tools like AI, then our responsibility extends with it. We must examine our values and possible biases, and we must choose external supports that are trustworthy. Moreover, as we rely on tools, platforms, and communities to think and decide, our cognition becomes distributed. Our minds no longer hold the entire reasoning process; we now depend on multiple systems to think critically and reach conclusions.

We hope you can join us for this fascinating journey through the extended mind!

READING MATERIALS

Overview of the extended mind concept (this section is 1 page)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_mind_thesis#%22The_Extended_Mind%22

Overview of the concept of qualia (this section is 2 pages)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualia#Definitions

Academic article on the extended mind and AI technology (about 6 pages, read what you can)
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/artificial-intelligence/articles/10.3389/frai.2022.908261/full

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