Embodied and Enactive Approaches to Cognition

Abstract

This Element discusses contemporary theories of embodied cognition, including what has been termed the '4Es' (embodied, embedded, extended and enactive cognition). It examines diverse approaches to questions about the nature of the mind, the mind's relation to the brain, perceptual experience, mental representation, sense making, the role of the environment, and social cognition, and it considers the strengths and weaknesses of the theories in question. It contrasts embodied and enactive views with classic cognitivism, and discusses major criticisms and their possible resolutions. This element also provides a strong focus on enactive theory and the prospects for integrating enactive approaches with other embodied and extended theories, mediated through recent developments in predictive processing and the free energy principle. It concludes with a brief discussion of the practical applications of embodied cognition. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Human innovation and the creative agency of the world in the age of generative AI

“…Arguments from 4E approaches in cognitive science (e.g. Gallagher, 2023;Newen et al, 2018), Material Engagement Theory (Malafouris, 2013(Malafouris, , 2018(Malafouris, , 2019, as well as possibility studies (Glaveanu, 2020;Gla˘veanu, 2023) will be used to show that being embodied, sense-making, being situated in and (proactively) interacting with and enacting the world, as well as corresponding (Ingold, 2013) with the world and its future potentials/possibilities are essential for being profoundly creative. We will argue that experiencing (future) potentials requires embodied agency and direct contact with an unfolding world and that bringing forth radical novelty is based on an understanding of creativity that is grounded-at least in part-in the creative agency of the (real) world-in-becoming.…”

“…According to these approaches, cognition is always embedded in the cognitive system's environment, it is embodied and extends into the environment by enacting and interacting with it (e.g. Clark, 2008;Di Paolo & Thompson, 2014;Froese & Di Paolo, 2011;Gallagher, 2023;Menary, 2010;Newen et al, 2018;Rolla & Figueiredo, 2023;Shapiro, 2014;Varela et al, 2016;Ward et al, 2017, etc. ).…”

Embodied Imagination: Lakoff and Johnson’s Experientialist View of Conceptual Understanding

“…A challenge when discussing embodied cognition is that "embodied" is used for a diverse set of loosely connected approaches (Barsalou, 2020;Gallagher, 2023;Shapiro, 2019;Wilson, 2002). What all embodied theories have in common is a claim that aspects of the body (its structures, processes, interactions, lived experiences) have a central role in cognition.…”

“…This paper focuses on Lakoff and Johnson's scholarship that emerged from the cognitive linguistics branch of embodied cognition. Wilson (2002) classifies Lakoff and Johnson's TEC as an offline theory, and Gallagher (2023) describes it as an "intermediate" theory (midway between "strong" and "weak") of embodied semantics. I identify three reasons why a review of this work is warranted here for a general psychological audience.…”

“…What all embodied theories have in common is a claim that aspects of the body (its structures, processes, interactions, lived experiences) have a central role in cognition. Recently, embodied cognition has been included as part of 4E cognition, where cognition is described as embodied, embedded, enactive, and extended (Barsalou, 2020;Gallagher, 2023). Embedded approaches (e.g., Gibson, 1979) focus on how the immediate environmental context shapes cognition, and enactive views (e.g., Varela et al, 1991) emphasize that cognition is engaged in real-time action.…”