CajunBot: A Case Study in Embodied Cognition

Publisher Summary This chapter addresses the status of embodied cognition, as compared with more traditional strategies in the study of cognition. On this issue, Cowart has identified two main positions. The so-called Compatibilist Approach, for example, is associated with Clark. This approach assumes that embodied strategies and tools for studying cognition can be used in conjunction with more traditional strategies and tools for such study. This approach stands in stark contrast to the so-called Purist Approach. The latter rests upon the more radical thesis that traditional strategies and tools are inherently flawed, and thus must be replaced wholesale with tools and strategies inspired by an embodied perspective on cognition. This kind of position, for example, is advocated by Varela et al. The main position that the fans of the Purist Approach to embodied cognition wish to take issue with is the so-called Classicist/Cognitivist view of cognitive science. Cowart characterizes the main differences between the Classicist/Cognitivist view and the Embodied Cognitivist view as consisting of a number of important contrasts. While the Classicist/Cognitivist view is grounded upon a computer-based metaphor of the mind, the Embodied Cognitivist view instead advocates a coupling metaphor for the mind.