Abstract
Embodiment has become an important concept in many
areas of cognitive science. There are, however, very
different notions of exactly what embodiment is and
what kind of body is required for what type of embodied
cognition. Hence, while many nowadays would agree
that humans are embodied cognizers, there is much less
agreement on what kind of artifact could be considered
embodied. This paper identifies and contrasts six
different notions of embodiment which can roughly be
characterized as (1) structural coupling between agent
and environment, (2) historical embodiment as the result
of a history of struct ural coupling, (3) physical
embodiment, (4) organismoid embodiment, i.e. organismlike
bodily form (e.g., humanoid robots), (5) organismic
embodiment of autopoietic, living systems, and (6) social
embodiment.
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