Radical embodiment : neural dynamics and consciousness

Embodiment and situatedness are now common themes in cognitive science1. Recently, Andy Clark drew attention to three controversial ‘radical embodiment’propositions often found in current research2: (1) understanding the complex interplay of brain, body and world requires the tools and methods of nonlinear dynamical systems theory; (2) traditional notions of representation and computation are inadequate; (3) traditional decompositions of the cognitive system into inner functional subsystems or modules (‘boxology’) are misleading, and blind us to arguably better decompositions into dynamical systems that cut across the brain–body–world divisions. These claims taken together express the viewpoint known as ‘enactive’ cognitive science3. Here we explore the implications of this viewpoint for the neuroscience of consciousness.