Published: 2024-07-31

Reasons For and Against the Distributed Human-Artefact System As an Autonomous Agent

Barbara Tomczyk
Studia Philosophiae Christianae
Section: Papers
https://doi.org/10.21697/spch.2024.60.A.02

Abstract

Supporters of distributed cognition declare a departure from methodological and cognitive individualism toward a dynamic systems approach, on the basis of which cognition is treated as a property of the entire wide system, and not of a single person. In this article, I focus on the problem of the agency of the human-artifact system and show that the distributed approach does not provide an explanatory advantage over the individualistic perspective on this issue. The analysis of external representations, affordances and design carried out by Witold Wachowski in his book Distributed Cognition. From Heuritics to Mechanisms [Poznanie rozproszone. Od heurystyk do mechanizmów] (2022) does not stray far from an individual-centered approach, despite his use of the “from culture to brain” heuristic. This heuristic does not contradict the subject-centric approach. In this article, I argue that the reassons for rejecting individualism outweigh the reasons that justify a distributed approach.

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Received: 22/03/2023. Reviewed: 10/01/2024. Accepted: 24/04/2024.

 

Keywords:

autonomous agency, extended mind, wide cognitive system, cognitive artifact, epistemic and moral responsibility, experience of agency

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Citation rules

Tomczyk, B. (2024). Reasons For and Against the Distributed Human-Artefact System As an Autonomous Agent. Studia Philosophiae Christianae, 60(1), 43–78. https://doi.org/10.21697/spch.2024.60.A.02

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