Figures page ................................................... ix
Preface ........................................................ xi
Introduction .................................................... l
Two Worlds: The Ghost and the Machine ........................... 2
Beyond Dualism: Taking the Body Seriously ....................... 4
Vertical Integration ............................................ 9
Embodied Cognition and the Humanities .......................... 11
The Trouble with Embodiment ................................. 14
Clearing the Way for Embodiment ............................. 16
Why Embodiment Matters ...................................... 27
PART 1: EXORCISING THE GHOST IN THE MACHINE
1. The Disembodied Mind: Problems with Objectivism ............. 31
Characterization of Objectivism ............................. 32
Problems with Objectivism ................................... 34
Human Knowledge Not Fully Propositional: The
Importance of Tacit Know-How ........................ 34
No Unitary Subject: The Objectivist Knower Is Not
Master of Its Own House ............................. 38
Embodied Emotions in Human Cognition: The Role of
"Fast and Frugal" Heuristics ........................ 42
The Purpose of Our Body-Brain Is Not Accurate
Representation but "Enacted Perception" ............. 47
Human Concepts Are Primarily Perceptually Based .......... 56
Prototypes and Radial Categories ...................... 59
The Crucial Role of Metaphor in Abstract Thought ......... 60
Problems with Objectivist Science: What Does It Mean
to Live in a Post-Kuhnian World? ....................... 62
Inductionism and Deductivism ............................. 63
There Is No Clear Distinction Between Facts and
Theories ............................................ 65
Hypotheses Are Not Clearly Falsifiable ................... 66
Underdetermination: Facts Consistent with an
Infinitude of Hypotheses ............................ 68
The Disunity of Science .................................. 69
Absolute, Disinterested Objectivity Is an Illusory
Goal ................................................ 70
Objectivism on the Ropes .................................... 72
2. They Live Among Us: Characterizing Postmodernism in the
Academy ..................................................... 74
Do as I Say, Not as I Do .................................... 74
Poststructuralist Theory: World as Text ..................... 79
The Standard Social Scientific Model: The Social
Construction of Reality ............................. 81
Science Studies and the Slide into Relativism ............... 84
The Almost-Pragmatist Turn: Philosophical Hermeneutics
and "Neo-Pragmatism" ................................... 88
The Almost-Nondualist Approach: The Later Latour ............ 92
The Almost-Embodied Approach: Pierre Bourdieu ............... 94
The Last Gasp of Postmodernism .............................. 96
3. Pulling the Plug: Laying to Rest Postmodern Epistemology
and Ontology ................................................ 99
Self-Refutation and Internal Incoherence .................... 99
Opacity of Reference, and Stylistic and Political
Conformity ............................................ 102
Cultural Essentialism and Romanticism ...................... 105
Thought Is Not Language .................................... 110
Perceptual Paradigms Are Not All-Determining ............... 115
No Blank Slate: The "Evolutionary Kantian" Position and
the Modular View of the Mind .......................... 117
Basic-Level Categories .................................. 121
Folk Physics ............................................ 122
Folk Biology and Essentialism ........................... 125
Innate Body Schemas ..................................... 127
Folk Psychology: "Theory of Mind" and the
"Intentional Stance" ............................... 129
Folk Mathematics: The "Number Sense" .................... 136
Human Metaculture: A Suite of Innate Modules Combined
with "Good Tricks" .................................... 138
Finally: The Pragmatic Response to Extreme Skepticism,
or What's Really Wrong with Postmodernism ............. 142
PART II: EMBODYING CULTURE
4. Embodying Culture: Grounding Cultural Variation in the
Body ....................................................... 151
Cognitive Fluidity ......................................... 152
Synaesthesia and Human Creativity .......................... 156
Are Synaesthesia and Metaphor the Same? ............... 160
Conceptual Metaphor: Voluntary, Partial, and
Communicable Synaesthesia ............................. 161
Putting the Body in Mind: Concepts as Image Schemas ..... 162
Conceptual Metaphor Theory .............................. 166
Pervasiveness of Conceptual Metaphor .................... 170
Experimental Evidence for the Cognitive Reality of
Conceptual Metaphor ................................ 171
Some Limitations of Conceptual Metaphor Theory .......... 174
Mental Space Theory and Conceptual Blending ................ 176
Double-Scope Blends: Beyond Source to Target Mappings ...... 177
Blending and Human Creativity .............................. 180
Seeing "As If" ............................................. 182
Blends and the Recruitment and Transformation of
Emotion ............................................... 185
An Example from Ancient China .............................. 188
Multiple-Scope Blends and the Accumulation of
Difference: Mencius 2:A:2 ............................. 196
Stage 1 ................................................. 196
Stage 2 ................................................. 199
Stage 3 ................................................. 203
Embodying Cultural Variety ................................. 206
Ratcheted Innovation .................................... 206
Reification of Blends in Material Culture ............... 207
Perceptual and Motor Plasticity ......................... 209
Putting the Culture in Body ............................. 210
An Epidemiological Model of Culture ........................ 212
Fine-Tuning and Minor Violations ........................ 214
The Human Body-Mind as Universal Decoding Key .............. 217
PART III: DEFENDING VERTICAL INTEGRATION
5. Defending the Empirical: Commonsense Realism
and Pragmatic Truth ........................................ 221
Pragmatism: The "Mother Tongue" of Thought ................. 222
The Empirical Prejudice: Knowing as Seeing ................. 223
Possible Counterexample 1: The Humanities ............... 226
Possible Counterexample 2: Religion ..................... 228
Science as an Extension of Commonsense Empiricism .......... 232
Extension Through "Helps" ............................... 233
Novel Cross-Domain Mappings ............................. 234
A Pragmatic Conception of Truth ............................ 237
Truth as Successful Achievement of Goals ................ 238
From Representation to Engagement ....................... 238
Pragmatic Response to the Problems with Science ............ 240
Underdetermination and Occam's Razor Preserving
a Notion of Progress ............................... 245
Limited Realism Concerning Observables and
Unobservables ...................................... 246
So What's So Great About Science? .......................... 248
6. Who's Afraid of Reductionism? Confronting Darwin's
Dangerous Idea ............................................. 250
Darwin's Dangerous Idea .................................... 252
The Bogeyman of Reductionism ............................... 258
From Physicalism to the Humanities: Levels of
Explanation ........................................... 261
Levels of Explanation and Emergent Qualities ............ 262
The Emergence of Free Will and Intentionality ........... 267
Weak Versus Strong Emergence: Blocking the Move
to Mysterianism .................................... 270
The Limits of Physicalism: Why We Will Always Be
Humanists ............................................... 278
Why Physicalism Does not Matter ......................... 279
We Are Robots Designed Not to Believe That We Are
Robots ............................................. 281
Human Reality Is Real ................................... 287
The Importance of Physicalism: Why Physicalism Both Does
and Does Not Matter ................................... 290
Why Physicalism Does Matter ............................. 290
Dual Consciousness: Walking the Two Paths ............... 293
Embracing Vertical Integration ............................. 295
Conclusion ................................................. 297
Moving from a Biversity to a True University ............... 298
Why Humanists Need to Work Harder .......................... 299
In What Sense Does Vertical Integration Represent
Progress? ............................................. 302
Beyond Objectivism: Embodying Ethics .................... 306
Accounting for Taste: The Embodied Approach to
Aesthetics ......................................... 308
Other Applications ...................................... 310
Appendix: Embodying Culture: Selected Bibliography
and Other Resources .................................... 313
General Resources for Embodied Approaches to Culture ....... 313
Programs and Centers .................................... 313
Books ................................................... 314
Embodied Approaches to Specific Disciplines ................ 315
Aesthetics .............................................. 315
Literature .............................................. 315
Morality and Ethics ..................................... 316
Religion ................................................ 319
References .................................................... 321
Index ......................................................... 357
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