ABSTRACT
Does embodied cognition clash with the computational theory of mind? The critics of computational modeling claim that computational models cannot account for the bodily foundation of cognition, and hence miss essential features of cognition. In this chapter, I argue that it is natural to integrate computational modeling with bodily explanations of cognition. Such explanations may include factors suggested by proponents of embodied cognition. Not only is there no conflict between embodied cognition and computationalism, but embodied cognition alone turns out to be fairly limited in its explanatory scope because it does not track proper invariant generalizations of all cognitive phenomena; some phenomena do not depend straightforwardly on embodiment alone but also on temperamental differences, individual learning history, cultural factors, and so on. This is why it works best when accompanied with other explanatory tools.
