The Content-Binding Problem in Radical Enactivism: a case study of Korsakoff’s syndrome

Summary

Radical Enactivism (REC) faces a structural problem called the Content-Binding Problem: it sharply separates contentless basic cognition from content-involving sociolinguistic practices, making it hard to explain how these different cognitive formats integrate. This integration becomes visible during memory breakdown in Korsakoff's Syndrome. Patients do not merely react to environmental stimuli; they try to coordinate external artifacts with their linguistic narratives. Their failures and self-corrections imply sensitivity to satisfaction conditions beyond skilled interaction. REC lacks an explanation for how socio-normative narrative contents are constrained by the physical environment. Korsakoff's Syndrome shows that human cognition requires representational mechanisms to bind these formats, challenging REC's anti-representational core.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This paper identifies a structural deficiency in Radical Enactivism called ‘the Content-Binding Problem’. REC distinguishes sharply between contentless basic cognition and content-involving sociolinguistic practices. This separation creates a difficulty in explaining how disparate cognitive formats integrate into a coherent whole. The integration process is often invisible during healthy functioning but becomes evident during the breakdown of memory in Korsakoff’s Syndrome. The analysis centers on autotopography and the reliance on environmental artifacts to anchor the self. Clinical evidence shows that patients do more than react to environmental stimuli. They attempt to coordinate the specific features of external artifacts with their linguistic narratives. The failures and subsequent attempts at self-correction observed in these patients imply a sensitivity to satisfaction conditions that cannot be fully explained by skilled interaction alone. REC currently lacks an explanation for how the socio-normative contents of narratives are constrained by the physical environment. Korsakoff’s Syndrome serves as a limit case to demonstrate that human cognition requires representational mechanisms capable of binding these distinct formats, a requirement that challenges the anti-representational core of REC.