Research & Initiatives

Where do the boundaries of mind end? Traditional thinking says: at the skull and skin. But a recent and powerful idea in the philosophy of mind and cognitive science suggests that our mental life is more expansive: that cognition supervenes on loops of biological and non-biological processes that play out partly in our heads and partly in our environments. For example, consider use of a notebook or a phone, at least, in certain conditions where we outsource cognitive tasks to these artefacts; proponents of extended cognition hold that our memories and beliefs might be extracranially realised and potentially stored. A question at the intersection of extended cognition and epistemology is whether and under what conditions such extracranially realised cognition rise to the level of knowledge; the special case of this question our project pursues is the paradigmatic digital case, viz., where extended cognition might under certain conditions give rise to digital knowledge, and if so, what digital virtues best explain this kind of digital knowledge. The upshot will be a better understanding of how an updated picture of the boundaries of cognition and cognitive traits interface with the kind of knowledge we ordinarily seek out, attain and store in digital environments. 

The project team, led by J Adam Carter (PI) and Jesper Kallestrup (Co-I), along with two postdocs, will deliver the above. Key outputs will include (i) a co-authored monograph by Carter and Kallestrup, (ii) journal articles aimed at top-flight venues during each of the three project phases, (iii) yearly international conferences and workshops, and work-in-progress feedback on all research prior to publication, (iv) an impact workshop with educationalists and local and UK policy makers related to digitally oriented epistemic virtues, (v) a regular podcast (disseminated with public philosophy articles on the project website), and (vi) a mini-MOOC Online Virtue which will disseminate the project's key findings to a wide audience of non-specialists. A wider objective of the project is to establish Scotland as a world-leading hub for digital epistemology.