Embodied cognition Embodied simulation Linguistic meaning

a b s t r a c t Several disciplines within the cognitive sciences have advanced the idea that people comprehend the actions of others, including the linguistic meanings they communicate, through embodied simulations where they imaginatively recreate the actions they observe or hear about. This claim has important con-sequences for theories of mind and meaning, such as that people’s use and interpretation of language emerges as a kind of bodily activity that is an essential part of ordinary cognition. Daniel Weiskopf pre-sents several arguments against the idea that experiential simulations play a major role in immediate language use and meaning. We offer several rebuttals to Weiskopf, in which we critique his interpreta-tion of simulation theory, present additional psycholinguistic evidence supportive of the simulation per-spective, and suggest that a more traditional theory of linguistic meaning and processing has little psychological and empirical validity.! 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. When citing this paper, please use the full journal title Studies in History and Philosophy of Scienc