The Thinking Body

FaculteitFaculty of Humanities

NiveauBachelor

Studiejaar2026-2027

Beschrijving

Course goals

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

Discuss and explain key ideas and debates from selected theoretical texts about 4E cognition
Use concepts from 4E cognition to examine and interpret artistic and media case studies
Work together in interdisciplinary groups to combine different perspectives and ideas and apply them in presentations and written work
Reflect on and evaluate interdisciplinary and collective ways of working
Critique previous work by forming and supporting their own argument

Each learning goal is tested through a mix of individual and group activities. Students discuss and explain theoretical approaches (goal 1) during seminars by means of class discussions and presentations of advanced texts. Goal 2 is assessed through in-class exercises applying concepts to media objects, as well as in the collective case study analysis developed on week 6. Students furthermore learn to apply ideas through interdisciplinary collaboration (goal 3) in group assignments. Students’ capacity to evaluate and critique modes of working and previous work (goals 4-5) is tested in two written assignments: an individual reflection on interdisciplinary and collective modes of working, and a written response to a class paper, in which they evaluate the paper’s argument, make judgements, and present their own informed position.

Content

This course examines the role of the body in human thought and experience, through what has come to be known as the 4E (embodied, enactive, embedded and extended) approach to cognition. Traditional approaches to cognitive science and the dominant views of the human mind in Western societies tend to place all the responsibility for how we perceive, make sense and behave on the brain, which is understood as a symbolic processing machine akin to a computer. These approaches tend to view the body as a passive container carrying the brain that plays little or no role in the higher domains of thinking. More recently, many researchers have started to look at the role of the body in what previously has been treated as ‘purely’ mental states and mental activities.

The 4E cognition approach is radically opposed to dualism (the binary division between mind and body, prominent over millennia of Western philosophy) and views the currently dominant computational theories of cognition as problematically preserving some aspects of it. From the alternative 4E perspective, the brain is understood a part of a broader system. Embodied approaches to cognition consider the physical, embodied interaction with our tangible environment as a crucial and inseparable part of how cognition and meaning–making take place. Enactive approaches see thought, perception and action as interwoven. They suggest an innovative approach to thought as a dynamic process, emerging from the interaction between human minded bodies (or bodyminds) and their lived environments. In addition to embodied and enactive, the mind is also treated as extended beyond the brain and embedded in the outside world. That is, these theories treat thought more like an ecological phenomena than a closed system. Perception and cognition are not purely abstract processes where new ‘sense data’ enters our brain, is processed and interpreted, and only later expressed in behaviour. Instead, it is a constant, multi–layered interaction, keenly involving our bodies and the world we inhabit.

This perspective has paved the way for new intersections and collaborations between cognitive science and the arts and humanities, which contribute to further understanding of the role of the body in how we experience, think and generally make sense of the world. Art has long been a field where meaning is communicated, experienced and explored through tangible images, bodies, objects, environments and movements; where understanding and inspiration are not purely mental and abstract but take place through embodied encounters. Artistic expression and aesthetic experience have therefore an immense potential for furthering our understanding of the embodied aspects of the mind.

This course is an introduction to the 4E perspective on cognition, examined through the lens of the humanities, that shines a particular spotlight on how this approach relates to art forms of various media (cinema, robotic art, theatre and performance, dance, interactive digital media). This course examines questions related to cognition, the body and art from a philosophical and theoretical perspective. Through this discussion, it also seeks to facilitate critical reflection on the embodied aspects of human experience that are under-addressed in various domains of our society, and open space to consider the potential for alternatives. Finally, this course also examines the central place of technology in our contemporary environment and seeks to ponder how interaction with technology is shaping our cognition and how technological interfaces may be built differently to accommodate a more embodied understanding of the human mind.

Additional information

The Thinking Body is part of the interdisciplinary minor Brains & Bodies: Cognitie en Emotie in de Geesteswetenschappen. but can also be taken as an independent course.

Priority rules
This course has priority rules and a waiting list. Your enrolment is guaranteed if you
- are a student in the BA Liberal Arts and Sciences or Taal- en Cultuurstudies and this course is part of your specialisation (kernpakket)
- are enrolled in the Brains and Bodies minor
- are an exchange student and meet the course’s entry requirements
In all other situations, you will be placed on a waiting list if you enrol in this course. For any remaining slots in the course, lots are drawn among the students on the waiting list.

Early Exit option for international exchange students (5 ECTS)

Exchange students who are required to return to their home university before January, are allowed to choose an Early Exit option for this course. The Early Exit option means that students can finish the course before Christmas break, receiving 5 ECTS for the course. Students must make arrangements with the course coordinator at the start of the course.

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