Binding Brain, Body and World: Pattern as a Figure of Knowledge in Andy Clark’s Work on Predictive Processing

Abstract

Over the past two decades, the predictive processing (PP) framework has emerged as an immensely influential research paradigm in cognitive science and beyond. This article analyzes the critical role that the notion of ‘pattern’ plays in the agenda-setting work of philosopher and cognitive scientist Andy Clark on PP and the project to develop the framework into a unified theory of the embodied mind. It argues that pattern contributes to this project not primarily as a full-fledged concept but rather as a figure of knowledge that shapes PP theory at a rhetorical and aesthetic level. The article offers a definition of figures ofknowledge as a critical concept and suggest to apply it more broadly to the study of pattern as “keyword of our times” (Franco Moretti).