Dances with dogs: interspecies play and a case for sympoietic enactivism.
Animal cognition March 1, 2021 Michele Merritt 13 citations
An enactivist framework, which views cognition as emerging from interaction rather than from internal mental processes, offers a better explanation of human-animal relationships than traditional theories. Focusing on play between humans and domestic dogs, the author argues that these interactions create novel, shared cognitive processes that cannot be reduced to either individual's mind. This is best understood as "sympoietic enactivism," meaning cognition is collectively produced during the interaction, rather than being self-organized (autopoietic). Drawing on multiple disciplines, the article contends that human-dog play exemplifies how thinking can be an intersubjective, playful process that generates wholly shared modes of thought.