The Biological Foundations of Enactivism: A Report on a Workshop Held at Artificial Life XV.

A workshop at the Artificial Life XV conference revisited enactivism's contributions to biology, aiming to ground the concept of autonomy in quantitative definitions based on observable phenomena. Discussions covered identifying emergent individuals from environmental backgrounds, the roles of autonomy and normativity in biological theory, the spontaneous emergence of autonomous agents at life's origins, and scientific approaches to subjective experience.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This is a report on the Biological Foundations of Enactivism Workshop, which was held as part of Artificial Life XV. The workshop aimed to revisit enactivism's contributions to biology and to revitalize the discussion of autonomy with the goal of grounding it in quantitative definitions based in observable phenomena. This report summarizes some of the important issues addressed in the workshop's talks and discussions, which include how to identify emergent individuals out of an environmental background, what the roles of autonomy and normativity are in biological theory, how new autonomous agents can spontaneously emerge at the origins of life, and what science can say about subjective experience.