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The New Mind: thinking beyond the head

  • 25th Anniversary Volume A Faustian Exchange: What is to be human in the era of Ubiquitous Technology?
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Abstract

Throughout much of the modern period, the human mind has been regarded as a property of the brain and therefore something confined to the inside of the head—a view commonly known as ‘internalism’. But recent works in cognitive science, philosophy, and anthropology, as well as certain trends in the development of technology, suggest an emerging view of the mind as a process not confined to the brain but spread through the body and world—an outlook covered by a family of views labelled ‘externalism’. In this paper, we will suggest there is now sufficient momentum in favour of externalism of various kinds to mark a historical shift in the way the mind is understood. We dub this emerging externalist tendency the ‘New Mind’. Key properties of the New Mind will be summarised and some of its implications considered in areas such as art and culture, technology, and the science of consciousness.

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Notes

  1. We will not provide here detailed analyses of the many and various internalist and externalist positions; there is already a substantial literature to which interested readers can refer, much of which cited throughout this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Consumption, Communication and Behavior, IULM University, Via Carlo Bo, 8, 16033, Milano, Italy

    Riccardo Manzotti

  2. Cardiff School of Art & Design, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Howard Gardens, Cardiff, CF24 0SP, UK

    Robert Pepperell

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  1. Riccardo Manzotti
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  2. Robert Pepperell
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Correspondence to Robert Pepperell.

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Manzotti, R., Pepperell, R. The New Mind: thinking beyond the head. AI & Soc 28, 157–166 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-012-0405-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-012-0405-3

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