September 17, 2007

Embodied Mind

short reflections on Varela, Thompson and Rosch's idea of cognitivism:

We find ourselves living in a world which has inherited most of its norms from the previously lived cultures which have established an evolving common sense, including our self- knowledge. Technology as an “amplifier” acts in transforming the social practices and making this knowledge possible.

Our minds operate by manipulation of symbols that represent behaviors and features of the world. This “process of symbols” is to a degree that we humans tend to mistaken representations with the actual events and object, while internally representing them. For instance we usually tend to confuse our names, our thought and the ideas of ourselves, with ourselves. Something which results in what Lacan calls “the big other” or what the authors call “separate subjective WE.” Again this internal representation of symbols depends a lot on our historically influenced minds.