Incorporation, Transparency and Cognitive Extension: Why the Distinction Between Embedded and Extended Might Be More Important to Ethics Than to Metaphysics

We begin (Sect. 1) by introducing our readers to the Extended Mind Thesis and briefly discuss a series of arguments in its favour. We continue (Sect. 2) by showing of such a theory can be resisted and go on to demonstrate that a more conservative account of cognition (called Embedded Theory) can be developed. We acknowledge (Sect. 3) a stalemate between these two different accounts of cognition and notice a couple of issues (namely, dimensions of transparency and excess of metaphysics in the debate) that we argue have prevented further progress in the field. To overcome the stalemate, we propose (Sect. 4) to focus on the ethical implications of these theories. We link (Sect. 5) work conducted on the Extended Mind Thesis with contemporary transhumanist research and claim that extended may be ethically preferred over embedded because it is a more progressive and inclusive theory.