Abstract
After having illustrated in the previous chapters the main features of my cognitive-epistemological analysis of abduction, it is necessary to further stress the dynamics involved in the interplay between internal and external representations in the case of logic. This will provide a tool for exploring the relationship between human and logical agents in section 7.1. First of all I will further develop my distinction between creative and mimetic artifacts. As I explained in chapter three these artifacts play the role of external objects (representations) active in what I have called disembodiment of mind. Mimetic external representations mirror concepts and problems that are already represented in the brain and need to be enhanced, solved, further complicated, etc. so they can sometimes creatively give rise to new concepts and meanings. From this perspective the expansion of the minds is, in the meantime, a continuous process of disembodiment of the minds themselves into the material world around them so that the evolution of the mind is inextricably linked with the evolution of many kinds of large, integrated, material cognitive systems. This chapter illustrates some features of this extraordinary interplay by focusing on the construction of logical cognitive systems and its consequences for abductive reasoning.