Philosopher at University of Edinburgh | Embodied Cognition; Merleau-Ponty | Running; Hills; Indolence
Dave Ward
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I wrote this partly because *I* used to ignore everything that makes the enactive approach importantly different from its neighbours. It can be hard to see, and enactivists don't always make their case as well as they could. This is me trying to atone for my mistakes, and help others avoid them! 5/
The enactive approach emphasises the biological roots of cognition; it emphasises how central our experience of living is to an adequate understanding of our place in the world; and it emphasises how our ways of experiencing and our tools for self-understanding constantly reshape each other. 3/
... In embodied cognition research there's a tendency to lump any view that doesn't like 'mental representations,' but does like going on about embodied interaction, under the heading 'enactivism'.
But this makes it easy to miss what makes the approach of 'The Embodied mind' uniquely valuable. 2/
The paper is part of a special issue on 'prospects for a science of enaction,' edited by @marilynstendera.bsky.social, @jelliedsours.bsky.social & Russell Meyer. A bunch of great papers are already up, check them out! Thanks to the editors for waiting frickin ages whilst I slowly wrote this! /FIN
In the paper I explain what those emphases involve, how they fit together, and why they make the enactive approach different from other 'embodied cognitive science'.
An upshot: Techbros who think that consciousness, agency and meaning are just networked information-processing are not enactivists 4/
Want to know what 'enactivism' is? Consider reading my new paper, 'What is Enactivism?', open access in Adaptive Behavior!
journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10....
Short version: It's what Varela, Thompson & Rosch said it was in 'The Embodied Mind' ages ago.
Slightly longer version... 1/
Been reading @giulio-ongaro.bsky.social's triptych of papers on prospects for an externalist biopsychosocial psychiatry with my MSc class this week. They are *really* good. 1/
philarchive.org/rec/ONGOFA-2
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