Jovana Rapaic

Graded exceptionally well for its analytical rigor, this paper applies the modern framework of cognitive ecology to Shakespeare’s The Tempest. It explores the early modern concept of the “porous” mind.

Storms Within and Without: Tracing Cognitive Ecology in The Tempest

The principles of cognitive ecology and its closely related frameworks including cognitive ecosystems (Hutchins, 2010), Distributed Cognition (Hutchins, 1995), and the Extended Mind Thesis (Clark & Chalmers, 1998) advocate an anti-individualist approach by highlighting cognition as context-dependent and extending beyond the individual (Tribble & Sutton, 2011, 94). While these concepts are frequently employed either interchangeably or in closely related contexts, the decision to focus on cognitive ecology over the others is inspired by Tribble and Sutton’s (2011) influential application of cognitive ecology in Shakespearean studies, demonstrating its suitability for exploring the intricate nexus of mind, body, and environment in early modern literature. Echoing Hutchin’s (2010) definition of cognitive ecology as “the study of cognitive phenomena in context,” (1) cognitive ecology marks a departure from traditional cognition models that emphasize isolated, internal processes and are grounded in Cartesian dualism (Tribble, 2011, 152). In contrast, this approach embraces the complexity of interactions between individuals and their surroundings, echoing Clark’s (1997) call “to abandon the idea (common since Descartes) of the mental as a realm distinct from the realm of the body” and “of neat dividing lines between perception, cognition, and action” (xiii). The “4E”- approach to cognition can further clarify this by positing that cognition must be understood as embodied, embedded, extended, and enacted (Rowlands, 2010, 6).

Accordingly, people in the early modern period perceived the body to be permeable and integrated with its environment, which offers a critical historical backdrop to this analysis. For instance, Poole (2011) reflects on the post-Cartesian idea of the body’s autonomy from its environment and notes “how profoundly strange” this concept would have appeared to the majority of those residing in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England (12). Contrary to the Enlightenment views of the body as a separate, static container, in Shakespeare’s era the reciprocal relationship between body and environment was emphasized (Sutton, 1998, 41; Paster et al., 2004, 16). The human body, the microcosm, was perceived as a miniature version of the universe, the macrocosm, with both continuously influencing each other (Paster, 2007, 142). This concept is encapsulated in the idea that “if there are multiple channels by which brain, body, and world interact and dynamically couple – materially, cognitively, emotionally, and culturally – then in early modern England, these channels were unusually open, at an unusually high bandwidth” (Sutton, 2007, 15).

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