Abstract
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This paper explores several paths a distinctive third wave of extended
cognition might take. In so doing, I address a couple of shortcomings of first- and
second-wave extended cognition associated with a tendency to conceive of the
properties of internal and external processes as fixed and non-interchangeable. First,
in the domain of cognitive transformation, I argue that a problematic tendency of the
complementarity model is that it presupposes that socio-cultural resources augment
but do not significantly transform the brain’s representational capacities during
diachronic development. In this paper I show that there is available a much more
dynamical explanation—one taking the processes of the brain’s enculturation into
patterned practices as transforming the brain’s representational capacities. Second, in
the domain of cognitive assembly, I argue that another problematic tendency is an
individualistic notion of cognitive agency, since it overlooks the active contribution
of socio-cultural practices in the assembly process of extended cognitive systems. In
contrast to an individualistic notion of cognitive agency, I explore the idea that it is
possible to decentralize cognitive agency to include socio-cultural practices.