Embodied Grounding : Social, Cognitive, Affective, and Neuroscientific Approaches

How does our capacity to think, use language, experience emotions, and to relate to one another - depend on our bodies? Exploring these issues from a neuroscientific and psychological view point, the authors lay aside an ancient Western tradition that placed body and mind in opposition.

In recent years there has been an increasing awareness that a comprehensive understanding of language, cognitive and affective processes, and social and interpersonal phenomena cannot be achieved without understanding the ways these processes are grounded in bodily states. The term 'embodiment' captures the common denominator of these developments, which come from several disciplinary perspectives ranging from neuroscience, cognitive science, social psychology, and affective sciences. For the first time, this volume brings together these varied developments under one umbrella and furnishes a comprehensive overview of this intellectual movement in the cognitive-behavioral sciences. The chapters review current work on relations of the body to thought, language use, emotion and social relationships as presented by internationally recognized experts in these areas.