Complexity and extended phenomenological-cognitive systems.

Extended cognitive systems are best understood as complex, non-linearly coupled brain-body-niche systems, not as representational or computational entities. This view explains extended cognition without invoking representations or computation, and it treats cognition and conscious experience as a single phenomenon, thereby dissolving philosophical puzzles about qualia and the hard problem of consciousness. These systems are relational and dynamical, with interactions among heterogeneous parts across multiple spatial and temporal scales.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The complex systems approach to cognitive science invites a new understanding of extended cognitive systems. According to this understanding, extended cognitive systems are heterogenous, composed of brain, body, and niche, non-linearly coupled to one another. This view of cognitive systems, as non-linearly coupled brain-body-niche systems, promises conceptual and methodological advances. In this article we focus on two of these. First, the fundamental interdependence among brain, body, and niche makes it possible to explain extended cognition without invoking representations or computation. Second, cognition and conscious experience can be understood as a single phenomenon, eliminating fruitless philosophical discussion of qualia and the so-called hard problem of consciousness. What we call "extended phenomenological-cognitive systems" are relational and dynamical entities, with interactions among heterogeneous parts at multiple spatial and temporal scales.