From Unmovable Points to Structural Drift: An Introduction to Enactivism

  • James Horn Cambridge College, USA
Keywords: Enactivism, embodied cognition, self-organized systems

Abstract

This essay examines possibilities for a reflexive understanding of knowledge attainment that is grounded in the enactive capacities of living systems. Appreciating the enactivist agenda requires a dislodging of obstructions created by an accumulated history of transcendental abstractions that have sought to provide a Cartesian “unmovable point” against which knowledge claims are veridically judged. This essay traces some long-held philosophical and scientific assumptions that have limited the attainment of knowledge in exchange for the banishment of epistemic anxieties that result from a loss of absolute certainty. A brief history of this problem is presented as context for the present advocacy of an enactive approach to the pursuit of cognitive outcomes. It is hoped that enactivism may offer a stable, yet evolving, understanding of how data, information, and knowledge intersect to constitute living and learning. Implications, both moral and scientific, are shared.

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Published
2019-12-31
How to Cite
Horn, J. (2019). From Unmovable Points to Structural Drift: An Introduction to Enactivism. European Scientific Journal, ESJ. Retrieved from https://eujournal.org/index.php/esj/article/view/12893