Scaffolded Minds: Integration and Disintegration (Philosophical Psychopathology) - Softcover

Book 11 of 12: Philosophical Psychopathology

Varga, Somogy

 
9780262553407: Scaffolded Minds: Integration and Disintegration (Philosophical Psychopathology)
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0262553406 ISBN 13: 9780262553407
Publisher: MIT Press, 2025

Synopsis

A comprehensive account of cognitive scaffolding and its significance for understanding mental disorders.

In Scaffolded Minds, Somogy Varga offers a novel account of cognitive scaffolding and its significance for understanding mental disorders. The book is part of the growing philosophical engagement with empirically informed philosophy of mind, which studies the interfaces between philosophy and cognitive science. Varga draws on two recent shifts within empirically informed philosophy of mind: the first, toward an intensified study of the embodied mind; and the second, toward a study of the disordered mind that acknowledges the convergence of the explanatory concerns of psychiatry and interdisciplinary inquiries into the mind.

Varga sets out to accomplish a dual task: theoretical mapping of cognitive scaffolding; and the application/calibration of fine-grained philosophical distinctions to empirical research. He introduces the notion of actively scaffolded cognition (ASC) and offers a taxonomy that distinguishes between intrasomatic and extrasomatic scaffolding. He then shows that ASC offers a productive framework for considering certain characteristic features of mental disorders, focusing on altered bodily experience and social cognition deficits. With Cognitive Scaffolding, Varga aims to establish that shifting attention from mental symptoms to fine-grained sensorimotor aspects can lead to identifying diagnostic subtypes or even specific sensorimotor markers for early diagnosis.

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About the Author

Somogy Varga is Professor of Philosophy at Aarhus University, Denmark. He previously worked at the University of Memphis (2012–2019), the Institute of Cognitive Science at the University of Osnabrück (2009–2012), and the Institute of Social Research at Goethe University Frankfurt (2007–2009). He is the author of Authenticity as an Ethical Ideal  and Naturalism, Interpretation, and Mental Disorder.

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Publisher
MIT Press
Publication date
2025
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0262553406
ISBN 13 
9780262553407
Binding
Paperback
Number of pages
284

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780262042628: Scaffolded Minds – Integration and Disintegration (Philosophical Psychopathology)

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  0262042622 ISBN 13:  9780262042628
Publisher: MIT Press, 2019
Hardcover