In this beautifully written and cogently argued book, Lambros Malafouris draws on recent developments in cognitive science and philosophy of mind to construct Material Engagement Theory (MET), a framework that sees action as a form of cognition. He shows how this theory has surprising implications not just for cognitive archaeology, but for the rest of cognitive science as well. This is a 'must read' book for everyone who is interested in how the particularly human way of thinking came into existence. -- Edwin Hutchins, Professor of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego In this book, Malafouris engages critically with a broad sweep of contemporary theories regarding material culture, evolution, and mind. He takes a radical view of human being, in which mind is continuous with the material world with which it is engaged. This is a viewpoint that gives archaeology a solid role within the social and human sciences, and that challenges many of our everyday assumptions about how we think our minds work. -- Ian Hodder, Dunlevie Family Professor, Department of Anthropology, Stanford University Lambros Malafouris has conjured up a gripping detective story, piecing together evidence to unravel the workings of today's human mind. He reveals how it has been manipulated and affected by the world around it from prehistory to the modern day. As well as its historical importance in cognitive archaeology, How Things Shape the Mind alerts our attention to the mind's future evolution. -- Kevin Warwick, Professor of Cybernetics, University of Reading
Lambros Malafouris is Creativity Research Fellow and Research Fellow and Tutor in Archaeology, Anthropology, and Human Evolution at Keble College, University of Oxford.
Is the mind imprisoned in the brain? In this mix of neuroscience and philosophy, Lambros Malafouris suggests that mind and materiality are allied in ways that defy reductive world views. Engrossing. Nature How Things Shape the Mind: A Theory of Material Engagement is a lucid and well presented account of the state-of-the-art in connecting an archaeology of mind with the study of material culture to develop a deeper understanding of relational ontology and the importance of mediation for human thinking and cognition more generally...a compelling ally to further challenge the orthodox models of representation as already developed in the philosophies of among other Bergson or Whitehead and further on by Deleuze and Guattari... -- Martha Blassnigg Leonardo Reviews This is a noble, if possibly premature, attempt to apply the theoretical underpinnings of philosophical and cognitive science to the gut understanding of craftsmen that their craft involves an active interrelationship between their brains, their bodies, and their materials...this book is strongly recommended to cognitive scientists, philosophers, and cognitive anthropologists/archaeologists. Choice How Things Shape the Mind is an important book. Not since Human Evolution, Language, and Mind: A Psychological and Archaeological Inquiry (Noble and Davidson 1996) has an authored book taken a significant critical view of the epistemology grounding cognitive archaeology. Its challenge will not be easy to meet -- our Cartesian view of mind is just so very comfortable -- but it may well provide a means for making true progress in the archaeology of mind. -- Thomas Wynn Current Anthropology This book has a coherent structure, a lucid narrative and an interesting though risky theoretical argument. These elements serve to captivate the reader with provocative questions and suggestive answers. Minds and Machines This is an informed and readable treatise detailing how material culture engages with humanity in a unique way, especially because of its physicality. Part psychology, part philosophy, and a good, heavy dose of archaeology, this is a challenging book, and Malafouris clearly intends it to be so... For those wishing to ponder this considerable challenge, Malafouris's book will be a great place to start. -- Stephen J. Lycett American Antiquity As Malafouris has so wonderfully explicated throughout his book, 'The mind is more than a brain,' (p. 227), and I am now forever transfixed upon the much grander meaning of kites and the people who fly them. -- Frederick L. Coolidge Brain How Things Shape the Mind is a rich, thought-provoking and ambitious book... [T]hat this book is a main contribution to cognitive archaeology and to the wider debate on how material culture and technology, on the one hand, and human thought, on the other, are causally intertwined. Anyone who is seriously interested in either or both of these fields should read this fascinating book. Ethos
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