MIND IN THE WORLD - COGNITION AND PRACTICE IN THE INVENTION OF THE TELEPHONE

Traditionally, we think of 'mind' as something in the head or brain. B ut when one studies scientists and inventors, one quickly realizes tha t much of their cognition is distributed in the world. This paper appl ies a cognitive framework to a fine-grained analysis of the invention of the telephone, in which we look closely at a series of Bell's exper iments and show how his devices serve as representations of his intent ions and understandings. This kind of analysis also establishes that, although Bell and his chief rival, Elisha Gray, built devices that app eared similar, their representations of their function and potential w ere different.