Ecological-Enactive Cognition as engaging with a field of relevant affordances
The Oxford Handbook of 4E Cognition October 9, 2018 Erik Rietveld, Damiaan Denys, Maarten Van Westen 104 citations
This chapter introduces the skilled intentionality framework, a philosophical approach that adds an ecological dimension to 4E cognition (embodied, embedded, enactive, extended). Building on James Gibson's ecological psychology, the framework centers on affordances—opportunities for action in the environment. Skilled intentionality is defined as the selective, simultaneous engagement with multiple affordances in a concrete situation. The framework integrates insights from philosophy, ecological psychology, emotion psychology, and neurodynamics to explain how the situated and affective embodied mind works, particularly in skilled action.