Arguing with images as extended cognition

Abstract

This paper proposes that images used within argumentative settings are examples of specific forms of extended and distributed cognition. Some insights are provided into the idea that the argumentative competence and activity is a manifestation of a more general human cognitive architecture. The paper first combines different perspectives in order to understand how the mind goes from accommodating its internal cognitive patterns to some regularities (environmental and cultural), to the ways in which the mind extends and distributes its cognitive resources. Then, this discussion is applied to the argumentative use of images by exemplifying both the internal accommodation and the extended and distributed cognitive functioning. In order to illustrate the former case (internal accommodation), the Toulminian argumentative diagram is proposed as an example of the tendency to organize events following a more basic cognitive pattern; and in order to illustrate the latter, a commercial campaign where image is used for argumentative purposes is analysed.