The Decentralized Self
The human brain is the seat of human agency, and yet this agency is caused by cellular agents unaware of our larger human goals.
LiteratureBase
The Body Social: an enactive approach to the self
Kyselo (2014) The Body Social: an enactive approach to the self
Abstract
- This paper takes a new look at an old question: what is the human self? It offers a proposal for theorizing the self from an enactive perspective as an autonomous system that is constituted through interpersonal relations. It addresses a prevalent issue in the philosophy of cognitive science: the body-social problem. Embodied and social approaches to cognitive identity are in mutual tension. On the one hand, embodied cognitive science risks a new form of methodological individualism, implying a dichotomy not between the outside world of objects and the brain-bound individual but rather between body-bound individuals and the outside social world. On the other hand, approaches that emphasize the constitutive relevance of social interaction processes for cognitive identity run the risk of losing the individual in the interaction dynamics and of downplaying the role of embodiment. This paper adopts a middle way and outlines an enactive approach to individuation that is neither individualistic nor disembodied but integrates both approaches. Elaborating on Jonas’ notion of needful freedom it outlines an enactive proposal to understanding the self as co-generated in interactions and relations with others. I argue that the human self is a social existence that is organized in terms of a back and forth between social distinction and participation processes. On this view, the body, rather than being identical with the social self, becomes its mediator.
- Concepts Agency, Autonomy, Behavior, Brain, Philosophy of Biology, Philosophy of Mind, Social cognition, Social-ecological systems
- Relevant learning goals Conceptual Thinking, Cooperation Competency, Metacognitive Competency, Self-Regulation Competency, Systems Thinking
- Relevant subject areas Cognitive Science, Enactivism, Philosophy, Selfhood in Philosophy
- Relevant research methods Conceptual clarification, Content analysis, Scientific clarification
- Relevant projects Annotated Reading List, Decentralized Self, Understanding Agency
- Relevant school improvement goals Conceptual pluralism, Conceptual understanding
