The following passage is adapted from an essay exploring the philosophy of cognitive science.
Paragraph 1 (lines 1-12)
Philosophers of mind have traditionally treated the boundary of the skull as the absolute limit of the human cognitive system. Under this internalist paradigm, mental processes—such as remembering, calculating, and planning—are strictly neural events occurring entirely within the brain. External tools, from simple notebooks to sophisticated digital calculators, are viewed merely as passive inputs or outputs that assist an already complete cognitive agent, rather than constituting active parts of the cognitive process itself.
Paragraph 2 (lines 13-25)
However, in their seminal 1998 paper, philosophers Andy Clark and David Chalmers proposed the "Extended Mind" thesis, arguing that the mind does not stop at the skin and skull. They suggest that when external objects are functionally integrated into our decision-making loops, they become literal components of our cognitive machinery. If a patient with Alzheimer's disease relies on a notebook to store memories and navigate daily life, that notebook performs the same functional role as biological memory. Therefore, Clark and Chalmers assert that the notebook is not just a tool; it is a physical constituent of the patient's mind.
Paragraph 3 (lines 26-42)
While critics often dismiss this thesis as a mere semantic redefinition of "mind," supporters argue it represents a fundamental shift in how we analyze human agency. By extending the cognitive boundary outward, we are forced to reconsider the relationship between technology and selfhood. Under this view, a smartphone is not merely an external device we manipulate; it is an active partner in a single, distributed cognitive system. Consequently, the ethical implications of this shift are profound: tampering with a person's digital device might be construed not simply as property damage, but as a direct assault on their cognitive integrity.
Which of the following best states the main idea of Paragraph 3 (lines 26-42)?
- Adopting the extended mind perspective redefines our understanding of human agency and introduces significant ethical implications regarding personal boundaries and technology.Answer
- BThe conceptual model of cognition is shifting from an internalist framework confined to the brain to one that integrates external tools as functional parts of the mind.
- CModern digital devices such as smartphones are best understood as active components of a distributed system rather than passive tools manipulated by a user.
- DCritics' dismissal of the extended mind thesis is unfounded because the cognitive functions of external devices are identical to biological brain processes.