The Extended Mind Hypothesis Analysis

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In their work, The Extended Mind, Andy Clark and David Chalmers present the extended mind hypothesis to argue against the idea of the mind consisting solely of inputs and outputs. The hypothesis argues that the mind is not simply an internal thing, but rather that it can exist externally and be part of an individual’s environment. Clark and Chalmers argue for this this by presenting the examples of Otto, a man whose memories and knowledge lie in a notebook, and Inga someone who stores all the information in her mental states. I will argue that the extended mind hypothesis is unsuccessful because there is no clear line of what is actually known and what is only thought to be known. The extended mind hypothesis is the argument that the …show more content…
In the instance of Otto, there is no confirmation that he is the one who authored the information in the book. Otto is shown to only know that his known information exists in his notebook, however this situation does not explain how he knows this. If he did not retain the memory of the notebook containing what he knows he cannot be sure that he truly knows what he knows based on the content of the notebook. Even then we would have to question how he would. Being unable to see the knowledge / mental processes of Inga shows that she has retained the information and actually knows it, she can pull out the information if needed, and is aware that she can, whereas Otto has to consult a notebook which he may or may not have written in. If Otto were to lose his notebook the information stored in it would no longer be accessible to him. Therefore, his knowledge or memory does not exist without him having the notebook. One may argue that Inga could be in a similar situation when she is drunk, but the memory is still stored internally and if need she would could still pull out the information because it is still stored in her head and readily available if she so desired. For Otto, even if he desired for the knowledge he cannot access the info then Clark and Chalmers cannot argue that he knows

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