Simon's
comments remind me of his concept of the extended mind:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Clark
http://mymindonbooks.com/?p=815
Paul
On 11 Aug 2009, at 17:51, Simon Biggs wrote:
> Wittgenstein wrote:
>
> It is misleading then to talk of thinking as of a 'mental
> activity'. We may say that thinking is essentially the activity
> of operating with signs. This activity is performed by the hand,
> when we think by writing; by the mouth and larynx, when we think
> by speaking; and if we think by imagining signs or pictures, I
> can give you no agent that thinks. If then you say that in such
> cases the mind thinks, I would only draw attention to the fact
> you are using a metaphor, that here the mind is an agent in a
> different sense from that in which the hand can be said to be
> the agent in writing.
>
> If again we talk about the locality where thinking takes place
> we have a right to say that this locality is the paper on which
> we write or the mouth which speaks. And if we talk of the head
> or the brain as the locality of thought, this is using the
> 'locality of thinking' in a different sense.[1]
>
> -- Ludwig Wittgenstein, Preliminary studies for the
> "Philosophical investigations".
>
> The argument Wittgenstein is proposing here is that thinking is an
> activity
> that might be located in all sorts of places other than the mind. He
> suggests that mind itself might be little more than a metaphor, a
> conceptual
> receptacle we can use so as to be able to identify where we
> subjectively do
> things like thinking, talking, perceiving and feeling. Wittgenstein
> suggests
> that the mind might not exist as anything more than metaphor or,
> that if it
> does exist, it might exist in place(s) we do not expect.
>
> I'd like to add to the places mind can exist the creative space that
> exists
> between us all; the social relationships we forge and are forged by,
> through
> our exchanges, whether large (a significant cultural intervention, for
> example) or so small we are not aware anything is there at all. I
> would like
> to think it is in the innumerable small things we share that we
> largely
> exist, only being reminded of ourselves as a phenomenon of this
> process of
> culturation when we encounter the big event (what might sometimes be
> called
> genius – a word I find unuseful). Through this view we might gain a
> more
> profound understanding of what is often called popular culture but
> which
> might be better characterised as of the same ilk as Fernando Ortiz's
> concept
> of transculturation.
>
> Best
>
> Simon
>
>
> Simon Biggs
> Research Professor
> edinburgh college of art
> s.biggs@eca.ac.uk
> www.eca.ac.uk
> www.eca.ac.uk/circle/
>
> simon@littlepig.org.uk
> www.littlepig.org.uk
> AIM/Skype: simonbiggsuk
>
>
>
> Edinburgh College of Art (eca) is a charity registered in Scotland,
> number SC009201
>
>
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====
Paul Brown - based in the UK July - Sept 2009
mailto:paul@paul-brown.com == http://www.paul-brown.com
UK Mobile +44 (0)794 104 8228 == USA fax +1 309 216 9900
Skype paul-g-brown
====
Visiting Professor - Sussex University
http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/ccnr/research/creativity.html
====
====
Paul Brown - based in the UK July - Sept 2009
mailto:paul@paul-brown.com == http://www.paul-brown.com
UK Mobile +44 (0)794 104 8228 == USA fax +1 309 216 9900
Skype paul-g-brown
====
Visiting Professor - Sussex University
http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/ccnr/research/creativity.html
====
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