•  2752
    Agency is Distinct from Autonomy
    Avant: Trends in Interdisciplinary Studies (2): 98-112. 2014.
    Both autonomy and agency play central roles in the emerging enactive vocabulary. Although some treat these concepts as practically synonymous, others have sought to be more explicit about the conditions required for agency over and above autonomy. I attempt to be self-conscious about the role of the observer (or scientist) in such discussions, and emphasise that the concept of agency, in particular, is deeply entwined with the nature of the observer and the framing of the observation. This is pr…Read more
  •  360
    The epistemological situation of a single cell is considered. In chemotaxis, the relation between perception and action is found to be lawful and bidirectional. Consideration of the perception/action relation allows a characterization of the phe- nomenal world of the cell. This phenomenal world is grounded in perceptual distinctions that are relevant to the sustained vi- ability of the cell. Moving up the phylogenetic chain, this lawfulness, and its relation to the phenomenal world of ex-…Read more
  •  51
    The diverse essays in this volume speak to the relevance of phenomenological and psychological questioning regarding perceptions of the human. This designation, human, can be used beyond the mere identification of a species to underwrite exclusion, denigration, dehumanization and demonization, and to set up a pervasive opposition in Othering all deemed inhuman, nonhuman, or posthuman. As alerted to by Merleau-Ponty, one crucial key for a deeper understanding of these issues is consideration of t…Read more
  •  46
    Sequencing and Optimization Within an Embodied Task Dynamic Model
    with Juraj Simko
    Cognitive Science 35 (3): 527-562. 2011.
    A model of gestural sequencing in speech is proposed that aspires to producing biologically plausible fluent and efficient movement in generating an utterance. We have previously proposed a modification of the well-known task dynamic implementation of articulatory phonology such that any given articulatory movement can be associated with a quantification of effort (Simko & Cummins, 2010). To this we add a quantitative cost that decreases as speech gestures become more precise, and hence intellig…Read more
  •  27
    The target article's approach is applauded, but it is suggested that the may be much larger than even the current authors suspect. Cartesian and mechanistic assumptions infuse not only the discipline of cognitive psychology, but all societal accounts of the person. A switch to dynamical accounts in which lawfulness is observed within a given systemic context is suggested
  •  16
    Enaction, and Its Relation to Science in an Objective Key
    Constructivist Foundations 11 (2): 245-246. 2016.
    Open peer commentary on the article “Interactivity and Enaction in Human Cognition” by Matthew Isaac Harvey, Rasmus Gahrn-Andersen & Sune Vork Steffensen. Upshot: Enaction, as a paradigm, is still negotiating its position with respect to science done in an objective key. Some of the problems identified by the authors arise by treating enactive descriptions as if they were realist accounts. Negotiating a resolution here will demand progress all round.
  •  12
    The reflexive character of enactive theory is spelled out, in an effort to make explicit that which is usually implicit in debate: that we are responsible for the distinctions we draw, and that ultimately, the world that we collectively characterize is a joint production. Enaction, as treated here, is not a positivist scientific field, but an epistemologically self-conscious way to ground our understanding of the value-saturated lives of embodied beings. This stance is seen as entirely congruent…Read more
  •  11
    Embodied task dynamics
    with Juraj Simko
    Psychological Review 117 (4): 1229-1246. 2010.
  •  9
    Received approaches to a unified phenomenon called “language” are firmly committed to a Cartesian view of distinct unobservable minds. Questioning this commitment leads us to recognize that the boundaries conventionally separating the linguistic from the non-linguistic can appear arbitrary, omitting much that is regularly present during vocal communication. The thesis is put forward that uttering, or voicing, is a much older phenomenon than the formal structures studied by the linguist, and that…Read more
  •  4
    Making Use of Contact, Niches, and Coordination (review)
    Constructivist Foundations 12 (3): 308-309. 2017.
    The eigenforms of von Foerster, like the concept of invariants in ecological psychology, have proved useful in stimulating both theory and empirical work in the study of perceptually guided action. The target article offers a novel elaboration of the core idea of invariance in flux. I offer two brief sketches that suggest how the novel formalism might provide a useful stimulus to thought in specific domains: the use of names in dyadic conversation and Buddhist accounts of perception.
  •  1
    Integrating Autopoiesis into a Scientific Account of Embodiment
    Constructivist Foundations 18 (1): 12-15. 2022.
    Maturana’s radically innovative concept of autopoiesis can, and should, trouble existing accounts of embodied cognition. Just how this concept can be further developed is still uncertain, as witnessed by ongoing confusion in the literature on embodied cognition, with its uncomfortable vacillation between describing embodied beings as humans, organisms, animals, or systems.
  • Multidisciplinary Aspects of Time and Time Perception (edited book)
    with Argiro Vatakis, Anna Esposito, Maria Giagkou, and Georgios Papadelis
    Springer. 2011.
  • Enaction Demands an Ontological Light Touch with Respect to the “Subject”
    Constructivist Foundations 13 (3): 381-382. 2018.
    Open peer commentary on the article “What Is a Cognizing Subject? Construction, Autonomy and Original Causation” by Niall Palfreyman & Janice Miller-Young. Upshot: The goal of Palfreyman & Miller-Young is to characterize a particular kind of self-determining subject in a way that attempts to resolve divergence between realist, constructivist and enactive accounts. The divergences exist for a reason, and the subject in a realist framework cannot be equated with the subject as it features in an en…Read more