The Concept of Embodied Human Intelligence: Power and Limits

Abstract

This essay focuses on the concept of embodied human intelligence as an important step beyond a purely brain-focused concept of intelligence. Besides brain structure, the embodied conception of intelligence also takes into account the differences in body structure between humans and animals. On the other hand, there is a large experimental evidence on the surprising cognitive and linguistic abilities of the human infant in the first months of life, when the means of bodily and verbal expression are still highly immature. This is inconsistent with an exclusively embodied conception of human intelligence. Furthermore, some of the best products of human intelligence are born in the presence of severe bodily and environmental limitations. The embodied concept of human intelligence is still insufficient to explain such extraordinary achievements. Human creativity points to something beyond bodily processes. This paper aims to bring the reader to the doorsteps of a spiritual consideration of human intelligence, but going beyond this step requires the conceptual tools of philosophy.