Digitally Extended Knowledge

Jesper Kallestrup

doi:10.1007/s11229-024-04818-2

Digitally Extended Knowledge

Jesper Kallestrup^* (Corresponding Author)

^*Corresponding author for this work

Philosophy

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The hypothesis of extended cognition says that cognitive processes and mental
states extend to include extra-organismic parts of the external world, provided certain conditions on cognitive integration are satisfied. Moreover, if knowledge is assumed to be a mental state, knowledge is, by a similar line of reasoning, equally extended. However, extended knowledge presents an additional challenge to do with cognitive bloat, given that knowledge is widely regarded as a distinctive cognitive achievement. This paper explores the idea that different types of software systems, rather than specific external devices, may serve to extend knowledge beyond our bodily boundaries, and if so whether this new hypothesis of digitally extended knowledge leads to any untoward expansion of knowledge.

Original language	English
Article number	164
Number of pages	22
Journal	Synthese
Volume	204
Early online date	28 Nov 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-024-04818-2
Publication status	Published - 28 Nov 2024

Bibliographical note

Many thanks to John Sutton, Mike Wheeler, Ema Sullivan-Bissett, Adam Carter, and two anonymous referees for very helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.

Keywords

extended cognition
dispositional belief
digital knowledge
program explanation

Access to Document

10.1007/s11229-024-04818-2Licence: CC BY

Kallestrup_etal_S_Digitally_Extended_Knowledge_VoR
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Final published version, 1 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

@article{2a08c2611859404e8dbc3979118acd66,

title = "Digitally Extended Knowledge",

abstract = "The hypothesis of extended cognition says that cognitive processes and mentalstates extend to include extra-organismic parts of the external world, provided certain conditions on cognitive integration are satisfied. Moreover, if knowledge is assumed to be a mental state, knowledge is, by a similar line of reasoning, equally extended. However, extended knowledge presents an additional challenge to do with cognitive bloat, given that knowledge is widely regarded as a distinctive cognitive achievement. This paper explores the idea that different types of software systems, rather than specific external devices, may serve to extend knowledge beyond our bodily boundaries, and if so whether this new hypothesis of digitally extended knowledge leads to any untoward expansion of knowledge.",

keywords = "extended cognition, dispositional belief, digital knowledge, program explanation",

author = "Jesper Kallestrup",

note = "Many thanks to John Sutton, Mike Wheeler, Ema Sullivan-Bissett, Adam Carter, and two anonymous referees for very helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.",

year = "2024",

month = nov,

day = "28",

doi = "10.1007/s11229-024-04818-2",

language = "English",

volume = "204",

journal = "Synthese",

issn = "0039-7857",

publisher = "Springer Netherlands",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Digitally Extended Knowledge

AU - Kallestrup, Jesper

N1 - Many thanks to John Sutton, Mike Wheeler, Ema Sullivan-Bissett, Adam Carter, and two anonymous referees for very helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.

PY - 2024/11/28

Y1 - 2024/11/28

N2 - The hypothesis of extended cognition says that cognitive processes and mentalstates extend to include extra-organismic parts of the external world, provided certain conditions on cognitive integration are satisfied. Moreover, if knowledge is assumed to be a mental state, knowledge is, by a similar line of reasoning, equally extended. However, extended knowledge presents an additional challenge to do with cognitive bloat, given that knowledge is widely regarded as a distinctive cognitive achievement. This paper explores the idea that different types of software systems, rather than specific external devices, may serve to extend knowledge beyond our bodily boundaries, and if so whether this new hypothesis of digitally extended knowledge leads to any untoward expansion of knowledge.

AB - The hypothesis of extended cognition says that cognitive processes and mentalstates extend to include extra-organismic parts of the external world, provided certain conditions on cognitive integration are satisfied. Moreover, if knowledge is assumed to be a mental state, knowledge is, by a similar line of reasoning, equally extended. However, extended knowledge presents an additional challenge to do with cognitive bloat, given that knowledge is widely regarded as a distinctive cognitive achievement. This paper explores the idea that different types of software systems, rather than specific external devices, may serve to extend knowledge beyond our bodily boundaries, and if so whether this new hypothesis of digitally extended knowledge leads to any untoward expansion of knowledge.

KW - extended cognition

KW - dispositional belief

KW - digital knowledge

KW - program explanation

U2 - 10.1007/s11229-024-04818-2

DO - 10.1007/s11229-024-04818-2

M3 - Article

SN - 0039-7857

VL - 204

JO - Synthese

JF - Synthese

M1 - 164

ER -

Digitally Extended Knowledge

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this