Architecture as Extensive Mind

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Department of Architecture, Faculty of urban planning and architecture, Isfahan Branch Islamic Azad University, Isfahan. Iran

2 null

3 Art University of Isfahan

4 proffessor assistant

Abstract

The relationship between man and architecture is usually assessed using behavioral science. However, this research intended to study architecture as a cognitive component using 4E cognition. This is different from the effect of environment on cognition which is often theorized as externalism within frameworks such as environmental psychology. This approach introduces architecture as an essential part of the mind and cognition. The main research question was: how does architecture act as the causative component of cognition? The main purpose of this study was to provide a new understanding of the nature of architecture and consequently, a new discourse to be established with architecture, particularly in the case of interactive and adaptive architectures which practically act as an extension of the body (prosthesis). At the strategic level, the research method was logical argumentation which, at the level of measures, based the analysis of architecture, as the extensive mind, on Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of embodiment, as the external logic of the argument. This study answered the research question by proving the essential role of metaphor in embodied cognition and consciousness and then, the role of architecture in generating primary and mixed metaphors. Therefore, here, metaphor is not considered a literary device but the foundation of abstract concepts and is strongly dependent on the characteristics of the body of the agent and the function of the body within the environment. The results of this study showed that architecture, as a body, acts as part of the extended mind or as an Exogram and architecture, as space, is the creator, weight-giver, and changer of primary metaphors by means of our sensory-motor behaviors and thus acts as an extensive and integrated mind.

Keywords

References

Ahmadi, B. (2016). The Temt -stucture and temtual interpretation.  Tehran: Entesharat-e Gam-e No.
Ansari, H. (2010). Theory and Semi-theory in Architecture. Honar-Ha- Ye Ziba, (41): 17-28.
Bechtel, R. B. & Churchman, A. (2002). Handbook of Environmental Psychology. NewYork: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Boroditsky, L. (2000). Metaphoric structuring: understanding time through spatial metaphors. Journal of Cognition, 75 (1): 1-28.
Clark, A. (2008). Supersizing the Mind: Embodiment, Action, and Cognitive Extension. NewYork: Oxford University Press.
Clark, A. & David J. Ch.. (2010). The extended mind. In The Extended Mind, edited by Menary, R. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Corballis, M. C. (2010). Mirror neurons and the evolution of language. Journal of Brain & Language, 112 (1): 25–35.
Donald, M. (1991). Origins of the Modern Mind: Three Stages in the Evolution of Culture and Cognition. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Dreyfus, H. L. (1990). Being-in-the-World: A Commentary on Heidegger’s Being and Time. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Fez-Barringten, Barie. (2012). Architecture: The Making of Metaphors. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Goodbun, J. (2011). The Architecture of the Extended Mind: Towards a Critical Urban Ecology. London: The University of Westminster.
Grives, R. M. & Jeffery, K.  J. (2017). The representation of space in the brain. Journal of Behavioral Processes, (135): 113–131.
Groat, L. & Wang, D. (2013). Architectural Research Methods. Canada: John Wiley & sons.
Heidegger, M. (2005). Being and Time. Translated by Macquarrie, J. & Robinson, E. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Hendershott, A. (2013). Toward a Corporeal Architecture Building about the Body. Toronto: Ryersin University.
Hoffecker, J. F. (2017). Modern Humans: Their African Origin and Global Dispersal. U.S.A: Columbia University Press.
Holl, S., Pallasmaa, J., & Perez-Gomez, A. (2006). Questions of Perception: Phenomenology of Architecture. San Francisco: William Stout Publishers.
Hutto, D. D. & Myin, E. (2013). Radicalizing Enactivism: Basic Minds without Content. Cambridge: the MIT Press.
Jaynes, J. (2000).  The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Lacoboni, M. (2009). Imitation, empathy and mirror neurons. Journal of Annual Reviews Psychology, 60 (1): 653-670.
Lakoff, G. (1990). Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal about the Mind. London: The University of Chicago Press.
Lakoff, G. & Johnsen, M. (1999). Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind & its Challenge to Western Thought. New York: Basic Books. 
Lakoff, G. & Johnsen, M. (2003). Metaphors we live. London: The University of Chicago Press.
Malafouris, L. (2013). How Things Shape the Mind: A Theory of Material Engagement. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Menary, R. (2007). Cognitive Integration: Mind and Cognition Unbounded. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Menary, R. (2010a). The Extended Mind. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Menary, R. (2010b). Introduction to the special issue on 4E cognition phenomenology. Journal of Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 9 (4): 459–463.
Menary, R. (2010c). Dimensions of mind. Journal of Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 9 (4): 561-578.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (2002). Phenomenology of Perception. Translated by Smith, C. London: Routledge Press.
Mitcham, C.  (1994). Thinking through Technology: The Path between Engineering and Philosophy. London: The University of Chicago Press. 
Noe, A. (2004). Action in Perception. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Noe, A. (2015). Strange Tools: Art and Human Nature. New York: Hill and Wang.
Onians, J. (2002). Greek temple and Greek brain, in Body and Building: Essays on the Changing Relation of Body and Architecture, edited by Dodds, G. & Tavernor, R Cambridge: The MIT Press.
O’Regan, K. J. & Noe, A. (2001). A sensorimotor account of vision and visual consciousness. Journal of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24 (5): 939–1031.
Pallasma, J. (2009). The Thinking Hand: Existential and Embodied Wisdom in Architecture. West Sussex: Wilet & Sons Ltd.
Pallasma, J., Mallgrave, H. F. & Arbib, M. (2013). Architecture and Neuroscience. The Tapio Wirkkala-Rut Bryk Foundation, Finland: Oy Nord Print Ab.
Piravi Vanak, M. (2010). Padidar Shenasi Nazd- e Merleau-Ponty [Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology]. Esfahan: Entesharat- e Porsesh.
Robbins, Ph. & Aydede, M. (2009). The Cambridge Handbook of Situated Cognition. NewYork: Cambridge University Press.
Rowlands, M. (2009). The extended mind and religious thought.Journal of Zygon, 44(3): 628-641.
Shahcheraghi, A. & Bandarabad, A. (2015). Environed in environment. Tehran: Jahad- e Daneshgahi.
Sirowy, B. (2010). Phenomenological Concepts in Architecture: Towards a User-Oriented Practice. Oslo: Arkitektur-og designhøgskolen i.
Soergel, Ph. M. (2005). Arts and Humanities through the Eras: The Age of the Baroque and Enlightenment (1600–1800).  Detroit, Michigan: Thomson Gale.
Sojoudi, F. (2012). Metaphor of Time in Persian Children Books (a, b, c Age Groups): A Cognitive Approach. Literary Criticism, 5 (19): 135-156.
Spiegelberg, H. (1994). The Phenomenological Movement: A Historical Introduction. London: Springer.
Starr, G. G. (2013). Feeling Beauty: The Neuroscience of Aesthetic Experience. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Steadman, Ph. (2008). The Evolution of Designs: Biological Analogy in Architecture and the Applied Arts. London: Routledge Press.
Sterne, J. (2006). Communication as Techne, in Communication as: Perspectives on Theory. Edited by Shepherd, G.J., Jefferey, St. J. & striphas,T. London: Sage Publications.
Sutton, J. (2005). Memory and the extended mind: embodiment, cognition, and culture. Journal of Cognition Process, 6 (4): 223–226.
Sutton, J. (2010). Exograms and Interdisciplinarity: History, the Extended Mind, and the Civilizing Process. In The Extended Mind, edited by. Menary, R. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Thompson, E. (2010). Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Science of Mind. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Varela, F., Thompson, E. & Rosch, E. (1993). The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Wheeler, M. (2010). In defense of extended functionalism, in: The Extended Mind. edited by Menary, R. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Wiggins, G. E. (1997). Louis I. Kahn: The Library at Phillips Exter Academy. NewYork: Thomson.
Wilson, R. A. (2001). The case for sensorimotor coding in working memory. Journal of Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 8 (1): 49–57.
Wilson, R. A. (2004). Boundaries of the Mind: The Individual in the Fragile Sciences: Cognition. NewYork: Cambridge University Press.
Wilson, R. A & Clark, A. (2009). How to Situate Cognition: Letting Nature Take its Course. In The Cambridge Handbook of Situated Cognition, ed. Philip, R. & Aydede, M. Cambridge University Press.
Wilson, R. A. & Foglia, L. (2017). Embodied Cognition, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Edward N. Zalta (ed.). Available from: https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2017/entries/embodied-cognition.
Woelert, P. (2011). Human cognition, space, and the sedimentation of meaning. Journal of Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 10 (1): 113–137.
Yong, L L. (1996). The development of Hindu-Arabic and traditional Chinese arithmetic. Journal of Chinese Science, (13): 35–54.
The Monthly Scientific Journal of Bagh-e Nazar
Volume 15, Issue 64
October 2018
Pages 29-40

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics