Out of body. Language, emotions and art in Vygotsky’s "Notebooks"

Felice Cimatti

Abstract


Abstract: According to the extended mind thesis, the human mind is not limited by the boundaries of the body. In this paper, we propose a description of human emotions based on two distinct theories,  not usually considered together: Vygotsky’s historical-cultural psychology and Chomsky’s theory of language. Together these two perspectives allow us to construct a global theory of extended mind that considers emotions to be artificial entities that have a specific “biological” goal and are external to the body. In the last short section, this model will be applied to the case of “artistic” human affect.

Keywords Extended Mind; Language; Lev S. Vygotsky; Noam Chomsky; Human Emotions; Aesthetic Reaction

 

Fuori dal corpo. Linguaggio, emozioni e arte nei diari di Vygotsky

Riassunto: Secondo la tesi della mente estesa, la mente umana non è confinata entro i limiti del corpo. In questo lavoro, proponiamo una descrizione delle emozioni umane basata su due diverse teorie, che solitamente non vengono considerate assieme: la psicologia storico-culturale di Vygotsky e la teoria del linguaggio di Chomsky. Prese assieme queste due prospettive ci permettono di costruire una teoria globale della mente estesa che consideri le emozioni come entità artificiali che hanno uno specifico fine “biologico” e che tuttavia sono “esterne” rispetto al corpo. Nell’ultima breve sezione, questo modello sarà applicato al caso del peculiare affetto “artistico” umano.

Parole chiave: Mente estesa; Linguaggio; Vygotsky; Chomsky; Emozioni umane; Reazioni estetiche



Parole chiave


Extended Mind; Language; Lev Vygotsky; Noam Chomsky; Human Emotions; Aesthetic Reaction

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.4453/rifp.2020.0019

Copyright (c) 2020 Felice Cimatti

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