I rewrote Clark and Chalmers' intro to "The Extended Mind." You can, too!
I rewrote the introduction to Clark and Chalmers' seminal article, "The Extended Mind." You can, too! However, I only used words among the 1000 most-used English words. Up-Goer Five is an online text editor that only uses the 1000 most-used English words. The creators challenge us to explain complicated ideas using only these words. See if you can do it. Pick your favorite complicated idea and try to explain with only these words.
Here is my re-write of the intro to "The Extended Mind:"
Beginning:
Where does your mind stop and the rest of the world begin? The question brings two normal replies. Some accept skin and head as where the mind stops, and say that what is outside the body is outside the mind. Others like reasons suggesting that the meaning of our words just are not in the head, and hold that this outside-like part of our words carries over into an outside-like part of our minds. We give you a third position. We love a very different sort of story about how parts of the mind can be outside the head: a story where many things important to our thoughts are outside our heads and how these outside things work with, and are even real parts of your thoughts. - Mr. Clark and Mr. Chalmers, 1998, 'The_extended_mind' 'Analysis' 58(1) 7-19.
For the sake of comparison, here is the original text from Clark and Chalmers' intro:
Where does the mind stop and the rest of the world begin? The question invites two standard replies. Some accept the boundaries of skin and skull, and say that what is outside the body is outside the mind. Others are impressed by arguments suggesting that the meaning of our words ‘just ain’t in the head’, and hold that this externalism about meaning carries over into an externalism about mind. We propose to pursue a third position. We advocate a very different sort of externalism: an active externalism, based on the active role of the environment in driving cognitive processes.
Once you get to the Up-Goer Five site, look at their Hints section. For instance, to have the words "Clark" and "Chalmers" accepted, I had to precede them with "Mr." Also, unacceptable phrases can be used if the underscore is placed between words. Apostrophes can be used to wrap a technical word. Without these, I never would have gotten the reference to be accepted.
Have fun!
