Positions: I’m a PhD student in cognitive science at the Institute of Cognitive Science, Osnabrück University (GER). I specialized in philosophy of mind and cognition, in particular the situated cognition paradigm. As a member of the working group ‘Philosophy of Mind and Cognition’, I teach philosophical and interdisciplinary classes to both bachelor and master students of our cognitive science program. I also work as a deputy scientific coordinator for the Research Training Group ‘Situated Cognition’, which is a DFG-funded project of Osnabrück University and Ruhr University Bochum. My PhD project is associated with it as well.
Project: In my PhD project, I am critically reviewing the debate on extended, embedded, and bounded cognition within the situated cognition paradigm. This debate discusses the cognitive significance and impact of solving cognitive tasks with different artifacts and techniques. By investigating novel cases of AI usage, I write a monograph on how the existing accounts could respond to such cases, what limitations they face respectively, and under what conditions an alternative hypothesis would be needed. My proposal of extracted cognition shall be better suited to illuminate certain cases of advanced tool usage where the AI user becomes surprisingly dependent on, overly confident in, and otherwise helpless without their AI ecosystem “thinking” for them.
Education: I received a bachelor and master of science in cognitive science from the Institute of Cognitive Science at Osnabrück University. I am now completing their three-stage program with a PhD in cognitive science. My specialization has primarily been philosophy, along with cognitive psychology. Other areas of training include computer science and artificial intelligence, neuroscience and neuroinformatics, computer linguistics and formal logic, and many other areas of cognitive science. During my bachelor studies, I also did a semester abroad at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) in philosophy and psychology.
Funding: My PhD project is also associated with the RTG ‘Situated Cognition’ from which I receive additional travel funding and who offer me further general and specific research training. For the summer term 2026, I received a 4-month DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) scholarship for doctoral students to further develop my PhD project together with Prof. Dr. Robert Rupert at the University of Colorado Boulder (USA).
Awards: At the biannual conference of the German society for cognitive science (Gesellschaft für Kognitionswissenschaft: GK) at Ruhr University Bochum (KogWis 2025) in September 2025, I was awarded one of two Best Presentation Awards based on my pre-selected submission and actual presentation performance. At the triannual international conference of the German society for analytic philosophy (Gesellschaft für Analytische Philosophie: GAP) at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (GAP.12) in September 2025, I was awarded one of three Best Paper Awards based on my submission in a double-blind, two-stage review process from 466 total submissions.
Areas of Specialization: Philosophy of cognition: Situated theories of cognition (extended cognition, embedded cognition, bounded cognition)
Areas of Competence: Philosophy of mind, classic theories of cognition (cognitivism, functionalism, computationalism), philosophy of cognitive science (reductionism and emergentism), metaphysics, epistemology, analytic philosophy
Louis Loock, M.Sc.
Osnabrück University
Institute of Cognitive Science
AG: Philosophy of Mind and Cognition
Wachsbleiche 27
49090 Osnabrück
Germany