Making Enactivism Even More Embodied
Oxford Scholarship Online August 24, 2017 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198794325.003.0008
Summary
Enactivism, a theory of mind, goes beyond action and sensory-motor processes to include affectivity and intersubjectivity. Affectivity—hunger, fatigue, pain, respiration, and emotion—influences perception, attention, and judgment. Intersubjective factors like bodily postures, movements, gestures, gaze, and facial expressions also affect cognition. This broader view of embodied cognition has implications for understanding brain function.
Study at a glance
| Design | theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key finding | A full enactivist approach to cognition must incorporate affectivity and intersubjectivity, not just action-oriented processes. |
Abstract
An enactivist approach to understanding the mind, in its fullest sense, is not just a matter of action-oriented processes; enactivism is about more than action and sensory–motor contingencies. To understand cognition as richly embodied this chapter considers factors involving affectivity and intersubjectivity. Empirical studies show that affectivity, in a wide sense that includes hunger, fatigue, pain, respiration, as well as emotion, has an effect on perception, attention, and judgment. Likewise, intersubjective factors, including the role of bodily postures, movements, gestures, gaze and facial expressions, and dynamical aspects of interaction, have similar effects. This richer conception of embodied cognition also holds implications for understanding how the brain works.