Embodiment and Cognitive Science [Hardcover]

Raymond W. Gibbs Jr (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 19, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0521811740 | ISBN-13: 978-0521811743

This book describes the many ways that the mind and body are closely interrelated, and how human thought and language are fundamentally linked to bodily action. The embodied nature of mind is explored through many topics, such as perception, thinking, language use, development, emotions, and consciousness. People's embodied experiences are critical to the ways they think and speak and, most generally, understand themselves, other people, and the world around them. This work provides a strong defense of the idea that embodied action is critical to the study of human cognition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"As a neuroscientist, I found this book to be thorough and extremely helpful"
Contemporary Psychology: APA REview of Books

Book Description

This book describes the many ways that the mind and body are closely interrelated, and how human thought and language are fundamentally linked to bodily action. The embodied nature of mind is explored through many topics, such as perception, thinking, language use, development, emotions, and consciousness. People's embodied experiences are critical to the ways they think and speak and most generally, understand themselves, other people, and the world around them. This work provides a strong defense of the idea that embodied action is critical to the study of human cognition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 348 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (December 19, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521811740
• ISBN-13: 978-0521811743
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,450,502 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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35 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Embodiment Established, February 26, 2006

By 

E. N. Anderson (Riverside, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Embodiment and Cognitive Science (Paperback)

This book definitively establishes the fact that not only is the mind "in" the body, the mind is the body. We think with our whole nervous system. Proprioception, peripheral nerves, bodily motions, all are major parts of cognition and experience. Not only do we think with our bodies, we can't think without them. Our thought is our action in the world.

Gibbs' superb uniting of neurology, psychology, linguistics, philosophy, and common sense simply buries Descartes (of mind-body dichotomy fame) under mountains of data and theoretically sophisticated interpretation. No one will ever again be able to argue that the mind is an abstract, disembodied entity trapped in flesh. This book is in the great tradition of Tolman, Hebb, and Merleau-Ponty, and should be transformational to anyone who hasn't already gotten the message. Even for me (a veteran reader in this field and lifelong non-Cartesian) the book was transformative. I learned a startling amount about everything from brain cells to babies (the latter are far more aware of their relationship with the world and its objects and trajectories than I thought). Already familiar with George Lakoff's work, I learned rather less about metaphor (discussed rather too repetitiously), but even here Gibbs has much to say, including a convincing interpretation of the bizarre sense of self captured in such phrases as "I'm not myself today" and "I'm so busy I'm beside myself."

I notice a tendency in American culture for women to see their bodies as something outside of their "selves," and even neuter in sex, as when a friend of mine who had cancer (mercifully cured) said "I felt my body had let me down, and I was sort of mad at it." I could never think of my body as neuter, or as an opponent. Neither, I think, could most men. But once a bunch of us were discussing this over lunch; in general, things broke along the above gender lines, but a highly analytic mathematician said he could think of his body as something foreign, while a notably accomplished and talented dancer said she could never imagine such a thing--she was firmly in her definitely gendered body. So experience and culture affect body images and body philosophies. This has been discussed a great deal in recent years. Gibbs wisely avoids getting mired in that endless literature, but I suppose the next stage in embodied cognition is to bring it all in. Meanwhile, everyone interested in cognition or consciousness should read Gibbs' book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Invaluable and Insightful, October 5, 2010

By 

J Costillo - See all my reviews

This review is from: Embodiment and Cognitive Science (Hardcover)

In Embodiment and Cognitive Science, Gibbs (2005) repeatedly drives home the point that cognition is an embodied experience and as such should never be considered as separate from the body. Although the emphasis throughout is on the importance of embodiment, or the understanding of the role of one's body within "everyday, situated cognition" (p. 1), Gibbs does not suggest that this explanation provides "the single foundation for all thought and language" (p. 3), but argues that it is an integral part of how we perceive and interact with the world around us. He avidly critiques the field of cognitive science as often neglecting this integral part and takes the time to explicitly point out examples and rigorous scientific studies that coincide with his position, particularly related to human beings' perception and action, conceptualization of the world around them, the formation and interpretation of imagery, memory, and reasoning, language and communication, cognitive development, and emotional and cognitive states and interactions. Overall, as a doctoral clinical psychology student, I found the book to be extremely informative and thought provoking though it was a bit repetitious and wordy. I will briefly comment on the most helpful aspects of the book, as well as further articulate my criticism of the book.

In general, I feel like Gibbs does an excellent job breaking down the dichotomous split, technically referred to as dualism, that considers the mind and body to be separate and has been asserted for many centuries now. From a budding psychotherapist's perspective not only does he refute this philosophical notion but also lends greater credibility to a more holistic view of the human person. Gibbs is simply not comfortable reducing a person to a collection of neurons being influenced by the neurotransmitters that constantly flow from one to the other. Although he acknowledges this to be an essential part of our human functioning, he also strongly posits that these chemicals and pathways are influenced by one's physical body and their response to and experience of the environmental context. Furthermore, he does an excellent job of pointing out the common human characteristic of having bodies and also articulating that humanity's experience and interpretation of these bodies varies from culture to culture. He specifically points this out in chapter two in discussing different cultures' emphasis on various senses and their subsequent interpretation of the world around them. Essentially, Gibbs successfully straddles the often treacherous fence between the hard and social sciences and attempts to show that these fields do not exist as far apart as one may perceive.

Building on the above and lending further credibility to Gibbs' deconstruction of the strict mind and body split, he consistently illustrates his point by crossing academic disciplines. One discipline integrated throughout the book includes linguistics. For Gibbs, the research within this discipline often provides support for the importance of one's embodiment within time, space, and motion. For example, in chapter four he highlights the example of a tribe of Apache Indians in North America naming the parts of a car based on the parts, and the function thereof, of body parts. Of course, he is also careful to highlight the fact that some, particularly experimental psychologists, would argue that it not sufficient to make behavioral claims based on linguistic formation; however, he just as strongly states that it is not wise to dismiss this type of embodied response as unimportant or non-representational of the way human beings make sense of the world around them. For it is by one utilizing their body within the world that they begin to create overarching templates as to their place within the world and consequently form ideas as to the responses that they consequently come to expect. After all, if we were all to simply be reduced to only our body chemistry would we not see more similarities between one another? Isn't it our experiences observed and carried out from the body that help to influence this biological interaction? Certainly, the field of contemporary neuroscience and relational attachment theory would answer this question in the affirmative. Again, it is about an interactive, open system from which Gibbs is arguing his position not a stagnant, closed position. I would argue that this basic understanding is gradually becoming more understandable from a more postmodern perspective but still faced with the at times rigid, inflexible arguments often posited within a more modern context.

Prior to summarizing my review of this book, I also want to briefly address my critique at the beginning, which suggested that the book is repetitious and wordy. Perhaps it is my perspective as a clinical psychology student that contributes to this critique since I am not one whose primary interest is focused on cognitive science. However, if one is considering utilizing this book as part of a clinical psychology training program, I would be careful to intentionally highlight the purpose of the book and the vantage point from which the writer is coming. I would also infer that the student may be wise to focus on the overarching concepts rather than attempting to understand the more finite nuances consistently emphasized throughout the book. Although these finite nuances are the very substance that help to lend credibility to the author's position they also make up the very material that can make this book somewhat daunting to try and absorb, especially if one has little prior experience with the field of cognitive science.

In closing, I did find the book to be very informative and enriching. For me, as someone who is constantly attempting to see the world from a more holistic perspective, I found the book to actually be refreshing - even in the midst of the redundancy! I feel like the author's point of integrating the mind and body and continuously looking for ways in which to do so is also extremely important within the work of psychotherapy and has caused me to be even more aware of what this may look like as I work with various clients from multiple backgrounds and even more diverse experiences. If you find yourself in the particular field of cognitive science, I see this book as invaluable, and if you find yourself within a particular sphere of the social sciences you are also bound to glean some helpful insights from reading the book, just be sure to keep the above caveats in mind! Enjoy.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Systemic Cognition, October 6, 2010

By 

Aaron E. Bartholomew (Azusa, Ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Embodiment and Cognitive Science (Hardcover)

The new wave of Cognitive science is solidly put forth by Gibbs in his attempt to begin to open our eyes to a more comprehensive and systemic view of the way we think, learn, perceive, develop language, remember, and interact with the world around us. While this read may be a little dense and slow for lay readers, those working in and around the cognitive sciences will find this book to be a welcome break from the historical view of cognition as its own independent process in the mind, detached from the rest of human experience. Previous views of cognition have likened the cognitive process to that of a computer; sensory information comes into the brain and a series of reactions lead to a predictable behavior. For many people, this type of view fails to encapsulate the breadth and depth of human experience. Gibbs has compiled current cognitive research that supports his idea that cognitive processes occur within a broader framework of the human body, human experience and the surrounding environment.

Gibbs works to uncover how cognition helps people develop their sense of self through touch and movement, and how this process leads people to develop their own subjective experiences. Gibbs also broadens out the view of human perception beyond that of the five senses directly. Gibbs considers that people perceive objects not only as they are, but also as something that can be changed and impacted though their behavior. While the former example includes the impact of imagination on cognition, cognition may also be impacted by using abstract thoughts or metaphors, which Gibbs identifies in the process of using and developing language. Gibbs also incorporates cultural considerations into the cognitive process, another break from traditional cognitive thought. This inclusion of culture considers the significant impact of the environment around us, and the importance of the context in which our cognitive processes develop. Gibbs frames the whole of cognition as " the body engage[ing in] the physical, cultural world [that] must be studied in terms of the dynamical interactions between people and the environment."

This is a refreshing view of cognition and science that reattaches the mind to the body and even takes the next step forward in calling for a shift in the methods used to explore our thoughts and behaviors. Effective future research from Gibbs' perspective of embodied cognitive science will consider cognition in the context of a physical and environmental system and not in isolation. Current science often tends to break pieces of human experiences in to their smallest pieces, but the context, meaning, and true causes and effects of cognitions are lost when isolated from their larger system. If you have a desire to start thinking more holistically about cognition, and do it in a way that is still scientific and supported by research, then Gibb's book is a good place to start.