How the Category of Embodiment Transforms the Problems of Philosophy of the Language: The Case of Understanding

Abstract

The author introduces the category of embodiment as it has been formulated in a relatively new current of cognitive science known as ‘embodied cognition’ or ‘embodied mind’ in order to study the way it transforms selected problems of the philosophy of language. Dealing with vast, complex and complicated material overfilled with various theories she selects three, the most representative presentations of this category (neuronal, experiential-phenomenological, socio-cultural) and enumerates their most important features. In the next step she compares the traditional approach to language and the embodied one, pointing out basic differences. Finally, and in more detail she examines the problem of understanding and its reformulations in the light of embodied approach as it has been presented.