Human Thinking Beyond the Brain

Abstract

It was long assumed that thinking goes on ‘in the head’: indeed, as recently as twenty years ago, many would have regarded it as absurd to examine thinking with reference to events beyond the brain. The chapters in Cognition Beyond the Brain adopt a different perspective: In thinking, people use dispositions from both sides of the skull. Readily observed phenomena—including neural activity—constitute the object of thinking, which relates conceptually to the construct ‘thinking’. Like all folk concepts, ‘thinking’ is a second-order construct used to ‘explain’ observations or, specifically, how action is—and should be—integrated with perception. As attested in each of the chapters, bodies co-orient to cultural resources while using bidirectional coupling. The focus thus falls on what can be learned about thinking by studying world-side activity. The chapters report empirical, observational and theoretical studies of how people use circumstances (and objects) to act alone, in dyads and in groups. People manage and track attention as they integrate speech and action with gestures, gaze and other bodily activity. In making interactivity part of thinking, a broad range and assortments of parts, procedures and modes of operation are invoked.