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The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience

Article in Complicity An International Journal of Complexity and Education · December 2004

DOI: 10.29173/cmplct8718

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Arizona State University
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 MARINA BASU

Book Review

A review of The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experi-

ence, by Francisco J. Varela, Evan Thompson, and Eleanor Rosch, 1991.
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 308pp. ISBN 0262720213. $30.00 USD.

Reviewed by:

MARINA BASU
Louisiana State University

Cognitive scientist Francisco J. Varela, philosopher Evan Thompson, and

psychologist Eleanor Rosch in their book The Embodied Mind: Cognitive sci-
ence and human experience seek to reconcile traditional understandings of
the self as a grounded and unified subject with cognitive science that posits
a more fragmented and situated view of the self. The authors base their
radical conceptualization within phenomenology and Buddhist philosophy.
Though the focus is on cognitive science, the authors’ criticism of the mecha-
nistic and representational assumptions in early cognitive science formula-
tions as well as their emphasis on emergence are in line with recent ap-
proaches taken in complexity theory.1
Several authors have studied the field of cognitive science from differ-
ent perspectives. One notable example is Hayles’ (1999) discussion of cy-
bernetics and artificial intelligence. Despite the growing complexity-related
literature base, The Embodied Mind, although written in 1991, still moves
beyond many contemporary theoretical approaches and draws on mind-
fulness/awareness meditation to resolve the dissonance between science
and personal experience. In a recent study, Auyang (2000) explores similar
issues when she addresses the “binding problem” of cognitive scientists
through an investigation into everyday experience. While fundamental con-
cepts like consciousness or life itself have been the subject of investigation,2

Complicity: An International Journal of Complexity and Education

Volume 1, Number 1 • pp. 101–104 • www.complexityandeducation.ca

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Review of The Embodied Mind

Varela and his coauthors question the self by plunging into “the I of the
storm” (p. 59).
Varela et al. begin their arguments by invoking “a fundamental circu-
larity” of being in an apparently pre-given world that is, however, “not
separate from us” (p. 3). They point out that Merleau-Ponty recognized this
circularity and attempted to use his phenomenological perspectives to re-
veal a middle way or an entre-deux between science/experience, inner/outer,
or self/world binaries. However, the authors maintain that Merleau-Ponty’s
as well as Husserl’s and Heidegger’s phenomenological formulations break
down because they remain abstract disembodied theories. Instead, the au-
thors posit that what is required is “embodied (mindful), open-ended re-
flection” that relates directly to experience (p. 27). Thus they present Bud-
dhist philosopher Nagarjuna’s mindfulness meditation to help address what
they identify as a notable absence in traditional theoretical perspectives.
The authors’ text progresses as they discuss developments in cognitive
science starting with cognitivism where cognition involves the representa-
tion of an outside independent world. According to them, in this mechanis-
tic information-processing model of the mind, the focus on computational
processes that the cognizing subject is not and cannot be aware of implies a
fragmented consciousness, which is contrary to our experience. Next they
examine connectionism or what they refer to as emergence. This alternative
moves away from representation to emphasize self-organizational and emer-
gent properties of cognitive processes that are context-dependent, which
show close correspondence with the emergence of mental factors in Bud-
dhist psychology. They claim that both Buddhism and connectionism ad-
dress the question of how “phenomena usually attributed to a self could
arise without an actual self,” which can lead us to the realization of the
groundlessness of the self (p. xix). However, they contend a more radical
approach is needed, as connectionism does not take the further step of in-
terrogating the stability of “not-self” or the world.
To address this noted absence the authors introduce a theory of enaction
based on the philosophical concept of hermeneutics, which implies “the
enactment or bringing forth of meaning from a background of understand-
ing” (p. 149). The concept of enaction integrates the Cartesian divide through
interdependence of the perceiver and the environment. As we enact a world,
we are necessarily also embodied in it: knowledge involves creative cogni-
tion arising from the interconnections between our bodies, language, soci-
ety, and the world. By embodied the authors refer to the necessity of a physi-
cal body whose sensory-motor experiences result in cognition.
The authors draw upon the concept of “natural drift” to counter the
argument that the kind of structural coupling between an organism and its
surroundings that is evident in enaction can be explained by the theory of

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 MARINA BASU

“optimal fit” in evolution. The authors point out that within the field of
evolution, alternative views exist that refute the optimal fit argument. Natu-
ral drift is one of these alternative perspectives, which posits the particular
evolutionary path followed by organisms as one path that exists among
many possibilities. The path chosen in turn determines the lived history
and ultimately cognition as embodied action of the cognizing subjects. Thus,
there is no predetermined path or ultimate ground, and this causes the au-
thors to explore Buddhist meditative practices to address the philosophical
issue of groundlessness. Delving into mindfulness/awareness meditation,
the authors discover an illusion: they find ego to be a construction of our
consciousness that serves to shield us from the fear of sunyata or empti-
ness—the lack of essential self or ground. In conclusion, Varela and his co-
authors state that such meditative practice is important because
[t]aking groundlessness as negative, as a loss, leads to a sense of alien-
ation, despair, loss of heart, nihilism. The cure that is generally espoused in
our [Western] culture is to find a new grounding… In Buddhism, we have
a case study showing that when groundlessness is embraced and followed
through to its ultimate conclusions, the outcome is an unconditional sense
of intrinsic goodness that manifests itself in the world as spontaneous com-
passion. (p. 253)
In other words, they observe that ego grasping is a human tendency as the
absence of any ground or reference point can be deemed threatening. Within
Buddhist philosophy such a vision is transformative, as mindfulness/aware-
ness meditation makes the habitual ego-clinging nature give way to com-
passion.
Thus, through a conversation between Eastern philosophy and Western
thought, the authors claim to resolve the conflict between human experi-
ence and cognitive science. The author’s endeavor to integrate these dis-
courses is commendable and the various issues are well discussed. How-
ever, in attempting to address several audiences, their argumentation does
not always remain rigorous and at times falls into a circularity and the mix-
ing of metaphors from different discourses that may be incompatible. While
frequently referring to Buddhist meditation practice as the only systematic
inquiry into these issues, they acknowledge that Lacanian analysis is an
exception, but surprisingly do not discuss it any further. At the same time,
the book is interspersed with passages from a wide variety of discourses
like neuroscience, linguistics, psychology and artificial intelligence, whose
inclusion appears at times to be a digression rather than an informative
addition to their arguments.
At a more fundamental level, the problem that Varela and his coauthors
seem to have is that though science denies a fixed self, it has not explained
the phenomenon of ego-grasping. Moreover, the authors argue that science

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 Review of The Embodied Mind

needs to be cognizant of “the idea that the experience of mind… without

ego-self, can be profoundly transformative” (p. 81). Despite this key belief,
it is doubtful that inner experience can ever be the topic of scientific inquiry.
One possible reason is that it cannot satisfy the criteria of falsifiability as
put forward by Popper (1968).
Thus, although the book examines cognitive science from an innovative
and fresh perspective by introducing the concepts of embodiment and
enaction, for most skilled readers The Embodied Mind would remain a col-
lection of abstract ideas from meditation and cognitive science. A further
notable absence entails the authors’ failure to discuss the limitations of their
proposed solutions that they borrow from esoteric practices. For example,
for educationists wanting to apply these insights in a pedagogical setting
there may arise religious, moral, and cultural impediments. Such practices
as advocated by Varela et al. might remain remote and inaccessible.

Endnotes
1. For a discussion of emergence in complexity, see Cilliers, 1998, Davis, et. al., 2003,
and Fleener, forthcoming. In particular, Cilliers (1998) identifies connectionism as
an example of complexity.
2. For example, Damasio (1999) explores consciousness through the connection be-
tween body and emotions. Capra (1996) asks “what is life?” drawing on complex-
ity theories and cognitive science.

References
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Capra, F. The web of life: A new scientific understanding of living systems. New York, NY:
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