The Study On Andy Clark’s Cognitive Thoughts

Cognitive science is a very comprehensive and frontier discipline. From the1970s, Computational Theory of Mind has been dominant in the fields of cognitive science and philosophy of mind. This theory emphasizes that the nature of the activities of cognition and mind is computation,the process of cognition is just connected with the symbols and algorithm,and not connected with body and world. Some scholars stared to question the Computational Theory of Mind,and paied more attention to the embodied cognition due to the limitation of computational metaphor in the fields of cognitive science and Artifical Intelligence.Embodied cognition emphasizes that body and world play an active role to the activity of congnition and mind.Andy Clark went further and proposed the Hypothesis of Extended Cognition and the Hypothesis of Extended Mind.He insisted that cognition and mind extend into the external environment and tools.There are three reasons for exploring Andy Clark’s cognitive thoughts.Firse, he is one of the most famous leaders in the fields of cognitive science and philosophy of mind,he also is an original philosopher.Second,his Hypothesis of Extended Cognition and Hypothesis of Extended Mind rethink the nature of cognition and mind,and scholars have had a heated discusstion about that.Third,Compared with foreign language materials,our research materials about Andy Clark’s cognitive thoughts need to be enriched.This article aims to explore Andy Clark’s cognitive thoughts objectively and systematically on the basis of studying the relevant literatures,including more first-hand foreign language materials.The paper includes five parts.The work about literature review will be finished in the first parts,and the second part is an introduction to the background of Andy Clark’s cognitive thoughts,that is,this part is about the domestic and abroad present research of cognition and mind.The third part will elaborate Andy Clark’s core concepts of cognition.On the basis of the work above, the fourth part will detail the disscussion about the Hypothesis of Extended Cognition and the Hypothesis of Extended Mind.The fifth part is the conclusion of this paper,it rethinks Andy Clark’s cognitive thoughts and points out the contradictions that exist in the defence of the EXTENDED’s supporters,then concluding that there still is a boundary between huaman mind and the external environment or tools.