Mind/Brain Analogies & Technological Development
Historical and cross-cultural investigation of how societies analogize the mind, and how those analogies track technological change
Description
This project investigates how people across cultures and periods of history have compared the “mind” (the seat of mental or cognitive activity) to external objects and systems. It examines how those analogies reflect and shape dominant theories of mind, and how they correspond to the technological sophistication available in a given time and place.
A central focus is the contemporary dominant analogy — the computational mind of Cognitive Science — and what it reveals about modern assumptions regarding cognition, selfhood, and the role of artifacts in generating experience. The project concludes with reflection on what the pattern of analogy-making tells us about sense-making, technological change, and understanding others.