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Richard Menary

Macquarie University, Philosophy, Faculty Member

Macquarie University, Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science, Faculty Member

Macquarie University, ARC Centre for Cognition and its Disorders, Faculty Member

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I am Professor and Head of the Department of Philosophy at Macquarie University Sydney. Between 2014 and 2018 I was an ARC Future Fellow. I read for a BA in philosophy at the University of Ulster, an MSc in Cognitive Science at the University of Birmingham and then a PhD in philosophy at King's College London. I have taught philosophy at the University of Kent, Birkbeck College Faculty of Continuing Education and as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire and then at the University of Wollongong.

My Research interests include:

Philosophy of Mind – especially narrative approaches to the self
Philosophy of Cognitive Science – especially embodied and extended cognition
Pragmatism - especially C.S. Peirce
Wittgenstein
Aesthetics
Virtue theory as it applies to both ethical and cognitive aspects of the individual.

I can supervise PhD theses in these areas.

My main current research interest concerns extended mind style arguments, my own take on which I call cognitive integration. According to which the real pay-off from extended mind style arguments is not a new form of externalism in the philosophy of mind, but rather a view in which the ‘internal’ and ‘external’ aspects of cognition are integrated into a whole. I argue for this thesis in my book Cognitive Integration: Mind and Cognition Unbounded.

I was the lead investigator for the Australian Research Council ‘Embodied Virtues and Expertise’ Discovery project (2010-2013) awarded $293,000. The research team includes: Prof. Shaun Gallagher, Prof. Daniel Hutto, Prof. Christopher Winch, Dr. David Simpson.

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Books by Richard Menary

Cognitive Integration

This book argues that thinking is bounded by neither the brain nor the skin of an organism. Cogni... more This book argues that thinking is bounded by neither the brain nor the skin of an organism. Cognitive systems function through integration of neural and bodily functions with the functions of representational vehicles. The integrationist position offers a fresh contribution to the emerging embodied and embedded approach to the study of mind.

The Extended Mind

Where does the mind stop and the rest of the world begin? In their famous 1998 paper “The Extende... more Where does the mind stop and the rest of the world begin? In their famous 1998 paper “The Extended Mind,” philosophers Andy Clark and David Chalmers posed this question and answered it provocatively: cognitive processes are not all in the head. The environment has an active role in driving cognition; cognition is sometimes made up of neural, bodily, and environmental processes. Their argument excited a vigorous debate among philosophers, both supporters and detractors. This volume brings together for the first time the best responses to Clark and Chalmers’ bold proposal. These responses, together with the original paper by Clark and Chalmers, offer a valuable overview of the latest research on the extended mind thesis.

The contributors first discuss (and answer) objections raised to Clark and Chalmers’s thesis. Andy Clark himself responds to critics in a paper that uses the movie Memento’s amnesia-aiding notes and tattoos to illustrate the workings of the extended mind. Contributors then consider the different directions in which the extended mind project might be taken, including the need for an approach that focuses on cognitive activity and practice.

Contributors

Fred Adams, Ken Aizawa, David Chalmers, Andy Clark, Stephen Cowley, Susan Hurley, James Ladyman, Richard Menary, John Preston, Don Ross, Mark Rowlands, Robert D. Rupert, David Spurrett, John Sutton, Michael Wheeler, Rob A. Wilson

Richard Menary is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Wollongong. He is the author of Cognitive Integration and the Philosophy of Cognition.

Radical Enactivism

Papers by Richard Menary

The Tools of Enculturation

We propose an account of cognitive tools that takes into account the process of enculturation by ... more We propose an account of cognitive tools that takes into account the process of enculturation by which tools are integrated into our cognitive systems. Drawing on work in cultural evolution and developmental psychology, we argue that cognitive tools are complex entities consisting of physical objects, representational systems, and cognitive practices for the physical manipulation of the tool. We use an extensive case study of spatial navigation to demonstrate the core claims. The account we provide is contrasted with conceptions of cognitive tools that simplify cognition, in particular that they offload cognitive work, or that the tools themselves are temporary developmental scaffolds or props. Enculturation results in transformed cognitive systems, and we can now think and act in new ways with cognitive tools.

Keeping Track With Things

Humans look at, think about and manipulate things with tools. Some tools are largely pragmatic in... more Humans look at, think about and manipulate things with tools. Some tools are largely pragmatic in nature, and they have a long history in our lineage, but more recently humans have innovated tools for keeping track of features of the environment. Epistemic tracking tools (as I shall dub them) allow us to think, perceive and manipulate the world with a precision that we would otherwise lack (Dennett 1996, Norman 1991, Hutchins 2005, Menary 2007)2. It is these epistemic tracking tools (henceforth ETTs) that will be the focus of this chapter. ETTs track particular environmental variables examples of such tools include: maps, compasses telescopes, sextants, and so on. There are also abstract systems of representation that track numbers, sets, sounds and phonemes, and collectively as sets of propositions and equations can track physical phenomena, or perhaps even the truth. This chapter will focus on providing an account of the evolutionary platform for ETTs, look at some examples of ETTs in action and look at some of the consequences of the account for the extended knowledge literature.

Seth, A. et al. (2016), Action-Oriented Understanding of Consciousness and the Structure of Experience. In Engel, A., Friston, K., Kragic, D. (Eds.) The Pragmatic Turn in Cognitive Science. Cambridge, MA: MIT press.

by Chris Frith, Miriam Kyselo, and Richard Menary

Embodying Culture: Integrated Cognitive Systems and Cultural Evolution

by Richard Menary and Alexander James Gillett

This is a Chapter in Julian Kiverstein's Rutledge Handbook of Social Mind. If cognitive system... more This is a Chapter in Julian Kiverstein's Rutledge Handbook of Social Mind.

If cognitive systems are hybrid, composed of heterogeneous components spread out over brain, body and environment, then how are they integrated into coherent functioning systems? Rather than take a synchronic view of integration, this chapter will investigate the evolutionary history of integrated systems and ask: how did such systems evolve? The answer lies in the unique evolutionary history of humans and the important roles of niche construction and cultural inheritance in driving the evolution of hybrid and integrated cognitive systems.

Pragmatism and the Pragmatic Turn in Cognitive Science

This chapter examines the pragmatist approach to cognition and experience and provides some of th... more This chapter examines the pragmatist approach to cognition and experience and provides some of the conceptual background to the " pragmatic turn " currently underway in cognitive science. Classical pragmatists wrote extensively on cognition from a natural-istic perspective, and many of their views are compatible with contemporary pragmatist approaches such as enactivist, extended, and embodied-Bayesian approaches to cogni-tion. Three principles of a pragmatic approach to cognition frame the discussion: First, thinking is structured by the interaction of an organism with its environment. Second, cognition develops via exploratory inference, which remains a core cognitive ability throughout the life cycle. Finally, inquiry/problem solving begins with genuinely irritating doubts that arise in a situation and is carried out by exploratory inference. (Pre-print version some typos)
Citation details: Menary 2016 Pragmatism and the Pragmatic Turn in Engel, A. K., K. J. Friston, and D. Kragic, eds. 2016. The Pragmatic Turn: Toward Action-Oriented Views in Cognitive Science. Strüngmann Forum Reports, vol. 18. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2016.

Cognitive Integration and the Extended Mind

Chapter XI of The Extended Mind ed. Richard Menary 2010 MIT Press.

What? Now. Predictive Coding and Enculturation

Regina Fabry has proposed an intriguing marriage of enculturated cognition and predictive process... more Regina Fabry has proposed an intriguing marriage of enculturated cognition and predictive processing. I raise some questions for whether this marriage will work and warn against expecting too much from the predictive processing framework. Furthermore I argue that the predictive processes at a sub-personal level cannot be driving the innovations at a social level that lead to enculturated cognitive systems, like those explored in my target paper.

Mathematical Cognition: A Case of Enculturation

Most thinking about cognition proceeds on the assumption that we are born with our primary cognit... more Most thinking about cognition proceeds on the assumption that we are born with our primary cognitive faculties intact and they simply need to mature, or be fine-tuned by learning mechanisms. Alternatively, a growing number of thinkers are aligning themselves to the view that a process of enculturation transforms our basic biological faculties. What evidence is there for this process of enculturation? A long period of development, learning-driven plasticity, and a cultural environment suffused with practices, symbols, and complex social interactions all speak in its favour. In this paper I will sketch in outline the commitments of the enculturated approach and then look at the case of mathematical cognition as a central example of enculturation. I will then defend the account against several objections.

The Aesthetic Niche

To appear in the British Journal of Aesthetics. Niche constructionist account of the origin of art.

Neural Plasticity, Neuronal recycling and Niche Construction

In Reading in the Brain, Stanislas Dehaene presents a compelling account of how the brain learns ... more In Reading in the Brain, Stanislas Dehaene presents a compelling account of how the brain learns to read. Central to this account is his neuronal recycling hypothesis: neural circuitry is capable of being ‘recycled’ or converted to a different function that is cultural in nature. The original function of the circuitry is not entirely lost and
constrains what the brain can learn. It is argued that the neural niche co-evolves with the environmental niche in a way that does not undermine the core ideas of neuronal recycling, but which is quite different from the models of cognitive and cultural evolution
provided by evolutionary psychology and epidemiology. Dehaene contrasts neuronal recycling with a naïve model of the brain as a general learning device that is unconstrained in what it can learn. Consequently a tension develops in Dehaene’s account of the role of plasticity in the acquisition of language. It is argued that the functional and structural changes in the brain that Dehaene documents in great detail are driven by learning and that this learning-driven plasticity does not commit us to a naïve model of the brain.

Extended Mind entry in Sage Encyclopedia of the Mind ed. Hal Pashler

Intentionality and Consciousness

The Evolution of the Hybrid Mind ch. 5 Cognitive Integration

Cognitive Integration, Enculturated Cognition and the Socially Extended Mind

Cognitive Transformations and Expertise

The Enculturated Hand. To appear in Z. Radman ed. The Hand an Organ of Thought MIT Press

Intentionality and Consciousness

Cognitive Integration

This book argues that thinking is bounded by neither the brain nor the skin of an organism. Cogni... more This book argues that thinking is bounded by neither the brain nor the skin of an organism. Cognitive systems function through integration of neural and bodily functions with the functions of representational vehicles. The integrationist position offers a fresh contribution to the emerging embodied and embedded approach to the study of mind.

The Extended Mind

Where does the mind stop and the rest of the world begin? In their famous 1998 paper “The Extende... more Where does the mind stop and the rest of the world begin? In their famous 1998 paper “The Extended Mind,” philosophers Andy Clark and David Chalmers posed this question and answered it provocatively: cognitive processes are not all in the head. The environment has an active role in driving cognition; cognition is sometimes made up of neural, bodily, and environmental processes. Their argument excited a vigorous debate among philosophers, both supporters and detractors. This volume brings together for the first time the best responses to Clark and Chalmers’ bold proposal. These responses, together with the original paper by Clark and Chalmers, offer a valuable overview of the latest research on the extended mind thesis.

The contributors first discuss (and answer) objections raised to Clark and Chalmers’s thesis. Andy Clark himself responds to critics in a paper that uses the movie Memento’s amnesia-aiding notes and tattoos to illustrate the workings of the extended mind. Contributors then consider the different directions in which the extended mind project might be taken, including the need for an approach that focuses on cognitive activity and practice.

Contributors

Fred Adams, Ken Aizawa, David Chalmers, Andy Clark, Stephen Cowley, Susan Hurley, James Ladyman, Richard Menary, John Preston, Don Ross, Mark Rowlands, Robert D. Rupert, David Spurrett, John Sutton, Michael Wheeler, Rob A. Wilson

Richard Menary is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Wollongong. He is the author of Cognitive Integration and the Philosophy of Cognition.

Radical Enactivism

The Tools of Enculturation

We propose an account of cognitive tools that takes into account the process of enculturation by ... more We propose an account of cognitive tools that takes into account the process of enculturation by which tools are integrated into our cognitive systems. Drawing on work in cultural evolution and developmental psychology, we argue that cognitive tools are complex entities consisting of physical objects, representational systems, and cognitive practices for the physical manipulation of the tool. We use an extensive case study of spatial navigation to demonstrate the core claims. The account we provide is contrasted with conceptions of cognitive tools that simplify cognition, in particular that they offload cognitive work, or that the tools themselves are temporary developmental scaffolds or props. Enculturation results in transformed cognitive systems, and we can now think and act in new ways with cognitive tools.

Keeping Track With Things

Humans look at, think about and manipulate things with tools. Some tools are largely pragmatic in... more Humans look at, think about and manipulate things with tools. Some tools are largely pragmatic in nature, and they have a long history in our lineage, but more recently humans have innovated tools for keeping track of features of the environment. Epistemic tracking tools (as I shall dub them) allow us to think, perceive and manipulate the world with a precision that we would otherwise lack (Dennett 1996, Norman 1991, Hutchins 2005, Menary 2007)2. It is these epistemic tracking tools (henceforth ETTs) that will be the focus of this chapter. ETTs track particular environmental variables examples of such tools include: maps, compasses telescopes, sextants, and so on. There are also abstract systems of representation that track numbers, sets, sounds and phonemes, and collectively as sets of propositions and equations can track physical phenomena, or perhaps even the truth. This chapter will focus on providing an account of the evolutionary platform for ETTs, look at some examples of ETTs in action and look at some of the consequences of the account for the extended knowledge literature.

Seth, A. et al. (2016), Action-Oriented Understanding of Consciousness and the Structure of Experience. In Engel, A., Friston, K., Kragic, D. (Eds.) The Pragmatic Turn in Cognitive Science. Cambridge, MA: MIT press.

by Chris Frith, Miriam Kyselo, and Richard Menary

Embodying Culture: Integrated Cognitive Systems and Cultural Evolution

by Richard Menary and Alexander James Gillett

This is a Chapter in Julian Kiverstein's Rutledge Handbook of Social Mind. If cognitive system... more This is a Chapter in Julian Kiverstein's Rutledge Handbook of Social Mind.

If cognitive systems are hybrid, composed of heterogeneous components spread out over brain, body and environment, then how are they integrated into coherent functioning systems? Rather than take a synchronic view of integration, this chapter will investigate the evolutionary history of integrated systems and ask: how did such systems evolve? The answer lies in the unique evolutionary history of humans and the important roles of niche construction and cultural inheritance in driving the evolution of hybrid and integrated cognitive systems.

Pragmatism and the Pragmatic Turn in Cognitive Science

This chapter examines the pragmatist approach to cognition and experience and provides some of th... more This chapter examines the pragmatist approach to cognition and experience and provides some of the conceptual background to the " pragmatic turn " currently underway in cognitive science. Classical pragmatists wrote extensively on cognition from a natural-istic perspective, and many of their views are compatible with contemporary pragmatist approaches such as enactivist, extended, and embodied-Bayesian approaches to cogni-tion. Three principles of a pragmatic approach to cognition frame the discussion: First, thinking is structured by the interaction of an organism with its environment. Second, cognition develops via exploratory inference, which remains a core cognitive ability throughout the life cycle. Finally, inquiry/problem solving begins with genuinely irritating doubts that arise in a situation and is carried out by exploratory inference. (Pre-print version some typos)
Citation details: Menary 2016 Pragmatism and the Pragmatic Turn in Engel, A. K., K. J. Friston, and D. Kragic, eds. 2016. The Pragmatic Turn: Toward Action-Oriented Views in Cognitive Science. Strüngmann Forum Reports, vol. 18. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2016.

Cognitive Integration and the Extended Mind

Chapter XI of The Extended Mind ed. Richard Menary 2010 MIT Press.

What? Now. Predictive Coding and Enculturation

Regina Fabry has proposed an intriguing marriage of enculturated cognition and predictive process... more Regina Fabry has proposed an intriguing marriage of enculturated cognition and predictive processing. I raise some questions for whether this marriage will work and warn against expecting too much from the predictive processing framework. Furthermore I argue that the predictive processes at a sub-personal level cannot be driving the innovations at a social level that lead to enculturated cognitive systems, like those explored in my target paper.

Mathematical Cognition: A Case of Enculturation

Most thinking about cognition proceeds on the assumption that we are born with our primary cognit... more Most thinking about cognition proceeds on the assumption that we are born with our primary cognitive faculties intact and they simply need to mature, or be fine-tuned by learning mechanisms. Alternatively, a growing number of thinkers are aligning themselves to the view that a process of enculturation transforms our basic biological faculties. What evidence is there for this process of enculturation? A long period of development, learning-driven plasticity, and a cultural environment suffused with practices, symbols, and complex social interactions all speak in its favour. In this paper I will sketch in outline the commitments of the enculturated approach and then look at the case of mathematical cognition as a central example of enculturation. I will then defend the account against several objections.

The Aesthetic Niche

To appear in the British Journal of Aesthetics. Niche constructionist account of the origin of art.

Neural Plasticity, Neuronal recycling and Niche Construction

In Reading in the Brain, Stanislas Dehaene presents a compelling account of how the brain learns ... more In Reading in the Brain, Stanislas Dehaene presents a compelling account of how the brain learns to read. Central to this account is his neuronal recycling hypothesis: neural circuitry is capable of being ‘recycled’ or converted to a different function that is cultural in nature. The original function of the circuitry is not entirely lost and
constrains what the brain can learn. It is argued that the neural niche co-evolves with the environmental niche in a way that does not undermine the core ideas of neuronal recycling, but which is quite different from the models of cognitive and cultural evolution
provided by evolutionary psychology and epidemiology. Dehaene contrasts neuronal recycling with a naïve model of the brain as a general learning device that is unconstrained in what it can learn. Consequently a tension develops in Dehaene’s account of the role of plasticity in the acquisition of language. It is argued that the functional and structural changes in the brain that Dehaene documents in great detail are driven by learning and that this learning-driven plasticity does not commit us to a naïve model of the brain.

Extended Mind entry in Sage Encyclopedia of the Mind ed. Hal Pashler

Intentionality and Consciousness

The Evolution of the Hybrid Mind ch. 5 Cognitive Integration

Cognitive Integration, Enculturated Cognition and the Socially Extended Mind

Cognitive Transformations and Expertise

The Enculturated Hand. To appear in Z. Radman ed. The Hand an Organ of Thought MIT Press

Intentionality and Consciousness

Cognitive Practices and Cognitive Character

Cognitivism and Internalism

Chapter 1 of Cognitive Integration, Richard Menary, 2007 Palsgrave Macmillan.

Introduction: The Extended Mind in Focus

Introduction to the Extended Mind Volume.

Embodied Cognition, Extended Mind and Expertise, Richard Menary

Why Study Philosophy?

So you want to be an academic

Dynamical Systems and the Extended Mind, Richard Menary pt 2

Dynamical Systems and the Extended Mind, Richard Menary pt 1

The Enculturated Brain

Expertise Skills and Pedagogy

The Extended Mind, Richard Menary and John Sutton.

Phenomenal Properties

Putnam on Externalism

Some Notes on Aristotle's Life

The Doctrine of the Mean in Aristotle's Ethics Some Notes

Lecture 1 What's in a Mind

Course Guide PHIL288 Philosophy of Mind