Ecological Psychology and Enactivism: A Normative Way Out From Ontological Dilemmas.
Frontiers in psychology January 1, 2020 Manuel De Pinedo García 11 citations
Recognizing that living, cognitive agents require normative language to be understood properly—rather than purely factual or descriptive terms—frees us from having to choose sides in ontological debates about whether such agents are eliminable, reducible, or emergent. Treating life only as something to be predicted and controlled strips it of dignity, and a purely factualist view risks making ethical judgments dependent on discovering alleged biological or mental facts, a form of representationalism that undermines democratic ideals by granting technocratic experts authority over values. The argument draws on early analytic philosophy, neglected in post-cognitivist discussions, to show that normative vocabulary is essential for making sense of life and agency.