Mnemonics as signs of memory: semiotics and agency
-
Joel West
Joel West is a PhD candidate at the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at the University of Toronto. His research involves the problem of meaning from an interdisciplinary point of view and specifically how it is that cognition is semiotic. Prior publications include two monographs,
The Sign of the Joker andThe Fractured Jew , also a book chapter on neologisms as Peircean indexes and, papers with topics as diverse as the semiotics of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme and a psycho-semiotic analysis of the Joker.
Abstract
This paper engages the question of the extended mind hypothesis, specifically in terms of memory and mnemonics. I use the case of an external object which is set to trigger a memory internally, but is not the memory, to explore the idea of extension versus distribution. I use the example of tzitzit, which is a garment worn by observant Jewish men, where is states in scripture that seeing the tassels attached to the garment are supposed to trigger a specific memory. The point of the essay is that extension is merely a metaphysical commitment, and that this commitment leads to some ethical issues.
About the author
Joel West is a PhD candidate at the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at the University of Toronto. His research involves the problem of meaning from an interdisciplinary point of view and specifically how it is that cognition is semiotic. Prior publications include two monographs, The Sign of the Joker and The Fractured Jew, also a book chapter on neologisms as Peircean indexes and, papers with topics as diverse as the semiotics of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme and a psycho-semiotic analysis of the Joker.
Acknowledgements
The author acknowledges the funding of this research by SSHRC, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The author is not aware of any conflicts of interest in this research.
References
Adams, Fred & Kenneth Aizawa. 2009. Why the mind is still in the head. In Murat Aydede & Phillip Robbins (eds.), The Cambridge handbook of situated cognition, 78–59. Cambridge: Cambridege University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511816826.005Suche in Google Scholar
American Psychological Association. 2022. APA dictionary of psychology. APA. https://dictionary.apa.org/mnemonic (accessed 23 November 2022).Suche in Google Scholar
Atkin, Albert. 2010. Icon, index and symbol. In Patrick Colm Hogan (ed.), Cambridge Encyclopedia of the language sciences, 367–368. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Carter, J. Adam & S. Orestis Palermos. 2016. Is having your computer compromised a personal assault? The ethics of extended cognition. Journal of the American Philosophical Association. https://doi.org/10.1017/apa.2016.28.Suche in Google Scholar
Clark, Andy & David Chalmers. 1998. The extended mind. Analysis 58(1). 7–19. https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/58.1.7.Suche in Google Scholar
Descartes, René. 1988. Discourse on the method of rightly conducting one’s reason and of seeking the truth in the sciences. Translated by Donald A. Cress. Indianapolis & Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company.Suche in Google Scholar
Giere, Ronald N. 2004. The problem of agency in sceintific distributed cognitive systems. The Jornal of Cognition and Culture 4(3–4). 759–774. https://doi.org/10.1163/1568537042484887.Suche in Google Scholar
Latour, Bruno. 1999. Give me a laboratory and I will raise the world. In Mario Biagioli (ed.), Science studies reader, 258–275. New York & London: Routledge.Suche in Google Scholar
Latour, Bruno. 1996. On actor-network theory: A few clarifications. Soziale Welt 4(1996). 369–381.Suche in Google Scholar
Levin, Janet. In Edward N. Zalta (ed.), Functionalism, December 21, 2021. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2021/entries/functionalism/ (accessed 30 August 2022).Suche in Google Scholar
Levy, Neil. 2020. Cognitive enhancement: Defending the parity principle. In Nicole A. Vincent, Thomas Nadelhoffer & Allan McCoy (eds.), Neurointerventions and the law: Regulating human mental capacity, 33–74. Oxford & Boston: Oxford Academic Press.10.1093/oso/9780190651145.003.0002Suche in Google Scholar
Mendoza-Collazos, Juan Carlos. 2021. Responsibility of action and situated cognition in artefact—user relationship. In Nancy L. Black, W. Patrick Neumann & Ian Noy (eds.), Proceedings of the 21st congress of the international ergonomics association (IEA 2021), 211–216. Cham: Springer International Publishing.10.1007/978-3-030-74602-5_32Suche in Google Scholar
Mendoza-Collazos, Juan Carlos & Jordan Zlatev. 2022. A cognitive-semiotic approach to agency: Assessing ideas from cognitive science and neuroscience. Biosemiotics 15. 141–170. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12304-022-09473-z.Suche in Google Scholar
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. 2012. The phenomenology of perception. Translated by Donald Landes. London: Routledge.Suche in Google Scholar
Miller, Walter M. 1959. A Canticle for Leibowitz. New York: J. B. Lippincott and Company.Suche in Google Scholar
Morrison, Alexandra B. & Lauren L. Richmond. 2020. Offloading items from memory: Individual differences in cognitive offloading in a short-term memory task. Cognitive Research. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-019-0201-4.Suche in Google Scholar
Oh, Wachul. 2021. Understanding of self: Buddhism and psychoanalysis. Journal of Religion and Health. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-021-01437-w.Suche in Google Scholar
Peirce, Charles Sanders. 1982. In The Peirce Edition Project (ed.), The writings of Charles S. Peirce: A chronological edition, vol. 2. 8 vols. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Sandburg, Carl. 1916. Fog. In Chicago poems. Chicago & Illinois: Henry Holt.Suche in Google Scholar
Sterelny, Kim. 2010. Minds: Extended or scaffolded. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 9. 465–481. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-010-9174-y.Suche in Google Scholar
West, Joel. 2019a. Models as signs of the imaginary: Peirce, Pierce, Langer and the non-discursive sign. Semiotica. 2022(245). 63–78. https://doi.org/10.1515/sem-2019-0080.Suche in Google Scholar
West, Joel. 2019b. The joker on the couch: A case study. The International Journal of Semiotics and Visual Rhetoric. 3(1). 11.10.4018/IJSVR.2019010101Suche in Google Scholar
West, Joel. 2022. The fractured Jew: An exploration of modern Jewish ontology via identities in popular culture. Leyden & Boston: Brill.10.1163/9789004510135Suche in Google Scholar
Wheeler, Michael. 2019. The reappearing tool: Transparency, smart technology, and the extended mind. AI and Society 34. 857–866. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-018-0824-x.Suche in Google Scholar
© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Miscellaneous
- Eulogy for Göran Sonesson (17 October 1951 – 17 March 2023)
- Articles
- The cognitive advantages of the notebook
- Managing abductions in working memory: the influence of percepts
- Mnemonics as signs of memory: semiotics and agency
- In the fold of the manifold: a reflection on Bloomsbury Semiotics
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Miscellaneous
- Eulogy for Göran Sonesson (17 October 1951 – 17 March 2023)
- Articles
- The cognitive advantages of the notebook
- Managing abductions in working memory: the influence of percepts
- Mnemonics as signs of memory: semiotics and agency
- In the fold of the manifold: a reflection on Bloomsbury Semiotics
