Re: [xmca] cognition bounded?

From: Kevin Rocap <Kevin.Rocap who-is-at liu.edu>
Date: Wed Dec 05 2007 - 07:57:58 PST

Thanks Eugene. Entertaining AND informative, while also being vaguely
ethnographic. ;-) Well done.

I'm thinking the mind "controversy" on one level simply brings us back
to the "unit of analysis" again, no? I think folks agree stuff is
happening on both sides of the skull, but, to be useful, trying to only
get at what is in the skull, short of MRI-style instrumentation, doesn't
seem to take us anywhere interesting, or that we want to go, no?
(except, of course, if you've tied your job security to studying only
what is inside the skull ;-) - motivation and object, I guess)

In Peace,
K.

Eugene Matusov wrote:
> Dear Mike and everybody—
>
>
>
> Let me add my 3 cents (dollar is going down ;-) for this discussion. I think
> it is better to use the verb “to mind” or “minding” than the noun “the mind”
> since we often refer to a process rather than to a thing. In general, I
> agree with Mike, of course. But let tell you an anecdote to illustrate the
> “distributed” (or discursive?) nature of the minding process.
>
>
>
> A few days ago, when I was leaving my work, I could not find my car in the
> university 4-store building parking garage. As my memory has been getting
> more and more mature ;-) every day, I knew that it would happen one day and
> that day came. While I was frustrating in my search running from one store
> of the parking garage to another, I realized that on the top of forgetting
> where I had parked my car, I forget to pick up a video camera from my lab
> for next day videotaped observation of Lego-Logo Robotics activities at the
> Latin-American Community Center. With even more frustration, I went back to
> my lab to pick up the camera. At the lab, I realized that I forgot to send a
> web announcement to my undergrad students about reading for upcoming class
> discussion. I sent the announcement and made some emails, and did some other
> work while I was in lab. When I finished, I realized that it took about 2
> hours. I came back to the parking garage (with the video camera this time)
> to resume the search of my car, the garage was almost empty, and I found my
> car very easily. I was thinking about my “strategy” of “waiting” until the
> garage became empty, “That was smart!” Now I am thinking, where was my mind?
> Did I have mind at all? Was it minding? Was it MY minding? Did I lose mind
> and then found? Does mind, like sh…, sometimes simply happen?
>
>
>
> Or is “my mind” a historical and cultural form of discourse for me to
> notice/recognize certain things and use them in future (like in future when
> I lose my car in the UD parking garage I might stop frustrating and stop
> useless searching efforts and just go back to my office to work more waiting
> until cars will be gone from the garage)? Is “the mind” reification of this
> discourse?
>
>
>
> What do you think?
>
>
>
> Eugene
>
>
>
> ---------------------
>
> Eugene Matusov, Ph.D.
>
> Professor of Education
>
> School of Education
>
> University of Delaware
>
> Newark, DE 19716, USA
>
>
>
> email: ematusov@udel.edu
>
> fax: 1-(302)-831-4110
>
> website: http://ematusov.soe.udel.edu
>
> publications: http://ematusov.soe.udel.edu/vita/publications.htm
>
> ---------------------
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> From: Mike Cole [mailto:lchcmike@gmail.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2007 11:45 PM
> To: Eugene Matusov
> Subject: Fwd: [xmca] cognition bounded?
>
>
>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Mike Cole <lchcmike@gmail.com>
> Date: Dec 4, 2007 8:44 PM
> Subject: Re: [xmca] cognition bounded?
> To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
> Cc: Kevin Rocap <Kevin.Rocap@liu.edu <mailto:Kevin.Rocap@liu.edu> >
>
>
> This appears to be the responibility of Deleware and Louisiana. Eugene and
> David?
>
> My view? OF COURSE the mind is in the head.... but not only. If it were only
> in the head it would stay
> there and not kill people. Too damned good at killing people as it is!
> mike
>
>
>
> On Dec 4, 2007 8:16 PM, Juan Felipe Espinosa Cristià <jfespino@uc.cl
> <mailto:jfespino@uc.cl> > wrote:
>
> :)
>
>
> Kevin Rocap escribió:
>
>
>> Then who's minding the store? ;-)
>>
>> Juan Felipe Espinosa Cristià wrote:
>>
>>> Dear All:
>>>
>>> An online paper from the authors is at:
>>>
>>> http://www.udel.edu/Philosophy/papers/adams2007.pdf
>>>
>>> They said that "the mind is still in the head".
>>>
>>>
>>> Juan Felipe Espinosa C.
>>> jfespino@uc.cl
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> On 12/4/07 11:20 AM, "Peter Smagorinsky" < smago@uga.edu> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Thanks Martin--always useful to see a contrary perspective. The
>>>>>
> descriptor
>
>>>>> says that the book:
>>>>> "Articulates and defends the "mark of the cognitive", a common sense
>>>>> theory
>>>>> used to distinguish between cognitive and non-cognitive processes"
>>>>>
>>>>> I always wonder about "common sense" arguments, and the author's belief
>>>>> that
>>>>> they are beyond culture.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Peter Smagorinsky
>>>>> The University of Georgia
>>>>> 125 Aderhold Hall
>>>>> Athens, GA 30602
>>>>> smago@uga.edu/phone:706-542-4507
>>>>> http://www.coe.uga.edu/lle/faculty/smagorinsky/index.html
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>> From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:
>>>>>
> <mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu> xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On
>
>>>>> Behalf Of Martin Packer
>>>>> Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2007 10:56 AM
>>>>> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
>>>>> Subject: [xmca] cognition bounded?
>>>>>
>>>>> Please find below news of the latest books from Blackwell Publishing in
>>>>> your
>>>>> chosen subject areas.
>>>>>
>>>>> To find out more about a particular title, download sample chapters or
>>>>> order
>>>>> examination copies online* click on "more information".
>>>>>
>>>>> The Bounds of Cognition
>>>>>
>>>>> By: Frederick Adams(University of Delaware) and Kenneth
>>>>>
> Aizawa(Centenary
>
>>>>> College of Louisiana)
>>>>>
>>>>> An alarming number of philosophers and cognitive scientists have argued
>>>>> that
>>>>> mind extends beyond the brain and body. This book evaluates these
>>>>> arguments
>>>>> and suggests that, typically, it does not.
>>>>>
>>>>> More Information
>>>>> http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/book.asp?ref=9781405149143
>>>>>
>>>>>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>>>>> ----------------------------
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> xmca mailing list
>>>>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
>>>>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>>>>>
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>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Juan Felipe Espinosa Cristià
> e-mail: jfespino@uc.cl
> http://jfespino.wordpress.com/
> <http://jfespino.wordpress.com/077070969/3624774>
> 077070969/3624774
>
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Received on Wed Dec 5 08:03 PST 2007

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