Varieties of Cognitive Integration

Abstract

Extended cognition theorists argue that cognitive processes constitutively depend on resources that are neither organically composed, nor located inside the bodily boundaries of the agent, provided certain conditions on the integration of those processes into the agent's cognitive architecture are met. Epistemologists, however, worry that in so far as such cognitively integrated processes are epistemically relevant, agents could thus come to enjoy an untoward explosion of knowledge. This paper develops and defends an approach to cognitive integration—cluster‐model functionalism—which finds application in both domains of inquiry, and which meets the challenge posed by putative cases of cognitive or epistemic bloat.

Neuromedia, cognitive offloading, and intellectual perseverance

“…The concept of extended intellectual virtue is highly controversial, although there has recently been a wave of research in the virtue epistemology literature promoting the idea (Battaly, 2018c;Carter, 2020;Cash, 2010;Howell, 2016;Pritchard, 2010Pritchard, , 2015. The consensus within this literature is that the conditions for extended virtue (as well as extended knowledge) are significantly more demanding than the conditions for mere extended cognition because intellectual virtue represents a distinctive kind of cognitive achievement (Carter & Kallestrup, 2019). 17 Whereas extended cognition can be facilitated by passively hooking oneself up to technology, integrating an artifact into a subject's intellectual character such that it extends their agency tenably requires active cognitive engagement with the artifact, and in particular, the kind of intellectual labor associated with mastering and responsibly managing artifacts that was discussed in the context of the previous objection.…”

“…Section II introduces braincomputer interface technology (or BCI for short), describes some recent and ongoing developments in the field of BCI research, and offers the concept of neuromedia as a cognitive enhancement BCI which could plausibly be created in the not-too-distant future. Section III presents and motivates the cognitive offloading argument, explains why the argument is especially concerning for a technology like neuromedia, and briefly considers an objection to the argument based on the extended mind thesis (Carter & Kallestrup, 2019;Clark & Chalmers, 1998;Pritchard, 2015). Section IV examines the cognitive offloading argument as it pertains to the virtue of intellectual perseverance before describing a few responsible forms of cognitive offloading that are compatible with the retention of intellectual perseverance.…”

An Algorithmic Metaphysics of Self-Patterns

“…According to the extended cognition thesis, to fulfill our cognitive goals, we depend on elements in our environment, including the “technological gadgets with which we regularly and uncritically interact” ( Carter and Kallestrup, 2019 , p. 1). The insight into the integration between the cognitive abilities of the organic agents and (presumably) non-organic (or extra-organismic) devices led to the philosophical belief that the extra-organismic devices constitute a non-negligible part of the cognitive process ( Clark and Chalmers, 1998 ).…”

Nonreductive Group Knowledge Revisited

“…The best way to demarcate cases of extended cognitive processes from mere background or auxiliary resources that causally influence a cognitive system without constituting parts of it is to impose Clark's (2010: 46) "trust and glue" conditions for a non-biological entity to count as integrated within such a system, thus ensuring functional isomorphism between, say, biological memory and an extended memory system. See also Carter and Kallestrup (2020).…”