Minds in movement: embodied cognition in the age of artificial intelligence
Louise Barrett, Dietrich Stout
Philosophical Transactions B August 1, 2024 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2023.0144 via Semantic Scholar
Summary
This introduction to a theme issue assesses embodied cognition in the era of generative AI. Embodiment is presented as a unifying concept that challenges mind–body dualism and sees a deep link between sensorimotor action and abstract thought. Two key themes emerge: language's role in cognition and its bodily entanglement, and bodily mechanisms of interpersonal perception and alignment in social affiliation, teaching, and learning. Embodied approaches remain promising but require greater cross-disciplinary integration to realize their full potential.
Study at a glance
| Design | theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key finding | Embodied approaches to cognition remain promising but need greater interdisciplinary integration to fully realize their potential. |
Abstract
This theme issue brings together researchers from diverse fields to assess the current status and future prospects of embodied cognition in the age of generative artificial intelligence. In this introduction, we first clarify our view of embodiment as a potentially unifying concept in the study of cognition, characterizing this as a perspective that questions mind–body dualism and recognizes a profound continuity between sensorimotor action in the world and more abstract forms of cognition. We then consider how this unifying concept is developed and elaborated by the other contributions to this issue, identifying the following two key themes: (i) the role of language in cognition and its entanglement with the body and (ii) bodily mechanisms of interpersonal perception and alignment across the domains of social affiliation, teaching and learning. On balance, we consider that embodied approaches to the study of cognition, culture and evolution remain promising, but will require greater integration across disciplines to fully realize their potential. We conclude by suggesting that researchers will need to be ready and able to meet the various methodological, theoretical and practical challenges this will entail and remain open to encountering markedly different viewpoints about how and why embodiment matters. This article is the part of this theme issue ‘Minds in movement: embodied cognition in the age of artificial intelligence’.