From enactive phenomenology to biosemiotic enactivism

Autopoietic enactivism (AE) and biosemiotics are two alternative frameworks in cognitive science and biology, respectively, that share theoretical overlap but have had little exchange. This paper proposes a novel synthesis called biosemiotic enactivism, which aims to clarify and strengthen key AE concepts by drawing from both fields. The main goals are to propose a new conception of cognition to advance AE's theoretical development and to introduce biosemiotic ideas to the enactive community to stimulate cross-field debate.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Autopoietic enactivism (AE) is a relatively young but increasingly influential approach within embodied cognitive science, which aims to offer a viable alternative framework to mainstream cognitivism. Similarly, in biology, the nascent field of biosemiotics has steadily been developing an increasingly influential alternative framework to mainstream biology. Despite sharing common objectives and clear theoretical overlap, there has to date been little to no exchange between the two fields. This paper takes this under-appreciated overlap as not only a much needed call to begin building bridges between the two areas but also as an opportunity to explore how AE could benefit from biosemiotics. As a first tentative step towards this end, the paper will draw from both fields to develop a novel synthesis – biosemiotic enactivism – which aims to clarify, develop and ultimately strengthen some key AE concepts. The paper has two main goals: (i) to propose a novel conception of cognition that could contribute to the ongoing theoretical developments of AE and (ii) to introduce some concepts and ideas from biosemiotics to the enactive community in order to stimulate further debate across the two fields.