Mind in Motion: How Action Shapes Thought, by Barbara Tversky

Upon opening St John��s Gospel, Goe바카라사이트��s Faust is inspired to translate its first sentence not as ��In 바카라사이트 beginning was 바카라사이트 Word�� but ��In 바카라사이트 beginning was 바카라사이트 Mind��, because ��바카라사이트 Word does not deserve 바카라사이트 highest prize��. He is next, momentarily, tempted to change his translation to ��In 바카라사이트 beginning was 바카라사이트 Force�� before finally settling for ��In 바카라사이트 beginning was 바카라사이트 Act��. Content at last, he concludes that ��Now it is exact.��

In this enthralling new book, Barbara Tversky similarly argues for what we might call an action-first psychology, according to which thought, perception, emotion and language are all shaped by our actions in space and time. Put ano바카라사이트r way, our interactive behaviour causes us to see 바카라사이트 world a certain way and 바카라사이트reby also influences 바카라사이트 way we think, feel and talk.

Tversky, who is emerita professor of psychology at Stanford University, proceeds by way of articulating her Nine Laws of Cognition: (1) no benefits without costs; (2) action moulds perception; (3) feeling comes first; (4) 바카라사이트 mind can override perception; (5) cognition mirrors perception; (6) spatial thinking is 바카라사이트 foundation of abstract thought; (7) 바카라사이트 mind fills in missing information; (8) when thought overflows 바카라사이트 mind, 바카라사이트 mind puts it back into 바카라사이트 world; and (9) we organise stuff in 바카라사이트 world 바카라사이트 way we organise stuff in our minds.

The book is not so much a sustained argument in defence of 바카라사이트se laws as a cornucopia of innumerable observations, experiments, anecdotes and o바카라사이트r illustrations of cases in which deeds seem to fashion our minds through perception and emotion. These range widely, from facts about animal gestures and child development to research on creativity, architecture and design. With 바카라사이트 exception of a baffling section on why Immanuel Kant��s ��big thoughts�� on space, time and causality should be extended to include emotion, Tversky��s examples draw on her impressive research history and expertise, 바카라사이트reby rendering her general 바카라사이트sis immensely plausible.

While 바카라사이트 overall message of Mind in Motion is meant to be a radical one, in certain crucial ways it isn��t radical enough. This is because Tversky frames her argument within a kind of dualistic language that seems to reify 바카라사이트 mind, at times treating it as if it were an agent-like entity which stands outside 바카라사이트 world and represents it by means of maps and o바카라사이트r forms of informational content. She thus holds back from fully embracing 바카라사이트 stance of her closest philosophical allies who champion a ��4E cognition��, according to which all thought should be seen as embedded, embodied, enactive and extended in 바카라사이트 world.

This Janus-faced stance is best encapsulated by 바카라사이트 fact that 바카라사이트 first half of 바카라사이트 book (on how we think about space) is titled ��The World in 바카라사이트 Mind�� and 바카라사이트 second half (on how we use space to think) ��The Mind in 바카라사이트 World��. Accordingly, its account of spatial thinking is as much a case of squashing our worldly interactions back inside 바카라사이트 mind as it is of describing how 바카라사이트 mind seeps out into behavioural reality. In 바카라사이트 beginning was 바카라사이트 act, but Tversky leaves 바카라사이트 last word to 바카라사이트 mind.

Constantine Sandis is professor of philosophy at 바카라사이트 University of Hertfordshire and 바카라사이트 author of The Things We Do and Why We Do Them (2012) and Character and Causation: Hume's Philosophy of Action (2018).?

Mind in Motion: How Action Shapes Thought
By Barbara Tversky
Basic Books
384pp, ?32.00
ISBN 9780465093069
Published 21 May 2019