Clark And Chalmers: The Extended Mind

In 1998 philosophers Andy Clark and David Chalmers collectively introduced their idea of the extended mind. What this means is they believe that cognition and even belief transcend beyond the confinement of the human skull. By a number of means, Clark and Chalmers aim to prove that cognition and belief do indeed exist outside of the physical human brain. I completely agree with Clark and Chalmers in their conception that the mind is extended, however, I mean to refute application of the fourth fundamental component of their extended mind theory, conscious endorsement, as I believe it’s omission would allow for a much wider application of their theory. I believe that if they were to do away with the fourth component altogether, then the consideration of the extended mind could apply …show more content…
I tend to disagree with this sentiment on the grounds that implicit bias is a perfectly fitting example that would seem to completely refute their conception of conscious endorsement. If you consider the way children inherit biases as a result of their environmental surroundings (i.e. parents, peers, role models, etc.), it is far more clear to see that people can (and quite often do) adopt potentially unconscious sentiments from their surroundings. This fundamental aspect of extended mind seems to be unnecessary in its application. In other words, if to consciously endorse a belief is a wholefully necessary component of said belief, then an entire world of implicit (non-consciously endorsed) beliefs then become null to the argument, which I think is not a positive proponent of extended mind theory by any means. Rather, if the fourth component was done away with, then the social extension model would apply just as fitting as their primary example, that is, of Otto’s mind