Distributed Cognition in Medieval and Renaissance Culture

This collection brings together 14 essays by international specialists in Medieval and Renaissance culture to bring recent insights from cognitive science and philosophy of mind to bear on how cognition was seen as distributed across brain, body and world between the 9th and 17th centuries.

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Reveals the diverse ways that cognition was seen as spread over brain, body and world in the 9-17th centuries

The second book in an ambitious 4-volume set looking at distributed cognition in the history of thought
Includes essays on literature, philosophy, law, art, music, medicine, science and material culture
For students and scholars in medieval and Renaissance studies, cognitive humanities and philosophy of mind
Draws out what was distinctive about medieval and Renaissance insights into (and superstitions about) the cognitive roles of the body and environment
Examines how humanities topics are affected by new insights from the cognitive sciences

This collection explores how medieval and Renaissance practices and ideas reveal the expression (and suppression) of cognition as distributed across brain, body and world. As many of the texts and practices have influenced later Western European societies and cultures, this book reveals vital stages in the historical development of our attempts to comprehend and optimise the distributed nature of cognition.

Contributors Miranda Anderson, Honorary Fellow, University of Edinburgh and Anniversary Fellow, University of Stirling, UK.

Guillemette Bolens, Professor of Medieval English Literature and Comparative Literature, University of Geneva.

Hannah Burrows, Lecturer in Scandinavian Studies, University of Aberdeen.

Julie E. Cumming, Professor, Schulich School of Music, McGill University, Canada.

Elizabeth Elliott, Lecturer in English, University of Aberdeen.

Aranye Fradenburg Joy, Founder of the Literature and The Mind Specialization and Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature, UC Santa Barbara; Faculty Member, New Center For Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles; Psychoanalyst in Private Practice.

Cynthia Houng, Doctoral Candidate, Department of History, Princeton University.

Daniel T. Lochman, Professor of English, Texas State University.

Raphael Lyne, Reader in Renaissance Literature, Faculty of English, and Fellow of Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge, UK.

Kate Maxwell, Associate Professor of Music History, University of Tromso, Norway.

Pieter Present, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).

Werner Schafke, Assistant Professor for Legal Education and Profession Studies, Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen.

Jan Soeffner, Chair For Cultural Theory and Cultural Analysis, Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen.

Mark Sprevak, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Edinburgh.

Evelyn Tribble, Professor and Donald Collie Chair of English, University of Otago, New Zealand.

Michael Wheeler, Professor of Philosophy, University of Stirling.

Hannah Chapelle Wojciehowski, Arthur J. Thaman and Wilhelmina Dore Thaman Professor of English, University of Texas, Austin.

Clare Wright, Lecturer in Medieval Literature, University of Kent.