-
29Making sense of the chronology of Paleolithic cave painting from the perspective of material engagement theoryPhenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 18 (1): 91-112. 2019.There exists a venerable tradition of interdisciplinary research into the origins and development of Paleolithic cave painting. In recent years this research has begun to be inflected by rapid advances in measurement techniques that are delivering chronological data with unprecedented accuracy. Patterns are emerging from the accumulating evidence whose precise interpretation demands corresponding advances in theory. It seems that cave painting went through several transitions, beginning with the…Read more
-
28The Feeling Is Mutual: Clarity of Haptics-Mediated Social Perception Is Not Associated With the Recognition of the Other, Only With Recognition of Each OtherFrontiers in Human Neuroscience 14. 2020.
-
27The enactive approach: Theoretical sketches from cell to societyPragmatics and Cognition 19 (1): 1-36. 2011.There is a small but growing community of researchers spanning a spectrum of disciplines which are united in rejecting the still dominant computationalist paradigm in favor of the enactive approach. The framework of this approach is centered on a core set of ideas, such as autonomy, sense-making, emergence, embodiment, and experience. These concepts are finding novel applications in a diverse range of areas. One hot topic has been the establishment of an enactive approach to social interaction. …Read more
-
25How passive is passive listening? Toward a sensorimotor theory of auditory perceptionPhenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 19 (4): 619-651. 2020.According to sensorimotor theory perceiving is a bodily skill involving exercise of an implicit know-how of the systematic ways that sensations change as a result of potential movements, that is, of sensorimotor contingencies. The theory has been most successfully applied to vision and touch, while perceptual modalities that rely less on overt exploration of the environment have not received as much attention. In addition, most research has focused on philosophically grounding the theory and on …Read more
-
22Enactive artificial intelligence: Investigating the systemic organization of life and mindArtificial Intelligence 173 (3-4): 466-500. 2009.
-
21Life is Precious Because it is Precarious: Individuality, Mortality and the Problem of MeaningIn Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic & Raffaela Giovagnoli (eds.), Representation of Reality: Humans, Other Living Organism and Intelligent Machines, Springer. 2017.Computationalism aspires to provide a comprehensive theory of life and mind. It fails in this task because it lacks the conceptual tools to address the problem of meaning. I argue that a meaningful perspective is enacted by an individual with a potential that is intrinsic to biological existence: death. Life matters to such an individual because it must constantly create the conditions of its own existence, which is unique and irreplaceable. For that individual to actively adapt, rather than to …Read more
-
19Getting interaction theory together: Integrating developmental, phenomenological, enactive, and dynamical approaches to social interactionInteraction Studiesinteraction Studies Social Behaviour and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systems 13 (3): 436-468. 2012.We argue that progress in our scientific understanding of the ‘social mind’ is hampered by a number of unfounded assumptions. We single out the widely shared assumption that social behavior depends solely on the capacities of an individual agent. In contrast, both developmental and phenomenological studies suggest that the personal-level capacity for detached ‘social cognition’ is a secondary achievement that is dependent on more immediate processes of embodied social interaction. We draw on the…Read more
-
19To Understand the Origin of Life We Must First Understand the Role of NormativityBiosemiotics 14 (3): 657-663. 2021.Deacon develops a minimal model of a nonparasitic virus to explore how nucleotide sequences came to be characterized by a code-like informational at the origin of life. The model serves to problematize the concept of biological normativity because it highlights two common yet typically implicit assumptions: that life could consist as an inert form, were it not for extrinsic sources of physical instability, and that life could have originated as a singular self-contained individual. I propose tha…Read more
-
18The enactive approach: Theoretical sketches from cell to societyPragmatics and Cognition 19 (1): 1-36. 2011.There is a small but growing community of researchers spanning a spectrum of disciplines which are united in rejecting the still dominant computationalist paradigm in favor of the enactive approach. The framework of this approach is centered on a core set of ideas, such as autonomy, sense-making, emergence, embodiment, and experience. These concepts are finding novel applications in a diverse range of areas. One hot topic has been the establishment of an enactive approach to social interaction. …Read more
-
16Sense-making with a little help from my friendsAvant: Trends in Interdisciplinary Studies 3 (2): 143-146. 2012.The work of Ezequiel Di Paolo and Hanne De Jaegher has helped to transform the enactive approach from relative obscurity into a hotly debated contender for the future science of social cognition and cognitive science more generally. In this short introduction I situate their contributions in what I see as important aspects of the bigger picture that is motivating and inspiring them as well as the rest of this young community. In particular, I sketch some of the social issues that go beyond mere …Read more
-
15Book Review: Embodiment, Enaction, and Culture: Investigating the Constitution of the Shared World (review)Frontiers in Psychology 10. 2019.
-
14Scientific Observation Is Socio-Materially Augmented Perception: Toward a Participatory RealismPhilosophies 7 (2): 37. 2022.There is an overlooked similarity between three classic accounts of the conditions of object experience from three distinct disciplines. Sociology: the “inversion” that accompanies discovery in the natural sciences, as local causes of effects are reattributed to an observed object. Psychology: the “externalization” that accompanies mastery of a visual–tactile sensory substitution interface, as tactile sensations of the proximal interface are transformed into vision-like experience of a distal ob…Read more
-
13The Pragmatics, Embodiment, and Efficacy of Lived Experience Assessing the Core Tenets of Varela's NeurophenomenologyJournal of Consciousness Studies 30 (11): 190-213. 2023.Varela's enactive approach to cognitive science has been elaborated into a theoretical framework of agency, sense-making, and sociality, while his key methodological innovation — neurophenomenology (NP) — continues to inspire empirical work. We argue that the enactive approach was originally expressed in NP as three core tenets: (1) phenomenological pragmatics, (2) embodied cognition, and (3) conscious efficacy. However, most efforts in NP have focused on applying tenet 1, while tenet 2 has rece…Read more
-
12Embodied Dyadic Interaction Increases Complexity of Neural Dynamics: A Minimal Agent-Based Simulation ModelFrontiers in Psychology 10. 2019.
-
11Where Is the Action in Perception? An Exploratory Study With a Haptic Sensory Substitution DeviceFrontiers in Psychology 11. 2020.
-
5Getting interaction theory (IT) togetherInteraction Studies. Social Behaviour and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systemsinteraction Studies / Social Behaviour and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systemsinteraction Studies 13 (3): 436-468. 2012.We argue that progress in our scientific understanding of the ‘social mind’ is hampered by a number of unfounded assumptions. We single out the widely shared assumption that social behavior depends solely on the capacities of an individual agent. In contrast, both developmental and phenomenological studies suggest that the personal-level capacity for detached ‘social cognition’ is a secondary achievement that is dependent on more immediate processes of embodied social interaction. We draw on the…Read more
-
Temporality and affectivity in depression and schizophreniaIn Christian Tewes & Giovanni Stanghellini (eds.), Time and Body: Phenomenological and Psychopathological Approaches, Cambridge University Press. 2020.
Tom Froese
Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University
-
Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate UniversityAssistant Professor
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Mind |
Epistemology |
Philosophy of Biology |
Philosophy of Cognitive Science |
Phenomenology |