Proceedings of The 20th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, and Informatics (WMSCI 2016)

The Enaction of Embodied Wisdom: The Unifying, Dynamic Nature of Cognition, Behavior, and Affect

Faith B. POWER Ambriel Technologies Winchester, VA 22601, USA

Clyde V. CROSWELL Human and Organizational Learning, The George Washington University Washington, DC 20052, USA ABSTRACT and wisdom. In what follows, we will outline the basic foundations of embodied Cognitive theorists have tended to separate “mind” cognition as it is enacted by affect, behavior and and “body.” This separation implies a physical responses and how it relates to embodied phenomenologically incomplete account of wisdom. cognition. As an alternative, this paper conceptualizes mind as the embodied process of The use of the term “cognition” is broad, yet living that is constitutive of emotions, behavior and generally cognition has been understood as physical responses, and it explains how these “thinking” or “knowing.” components dynamically co-emerge as embodied represents a multidiscipline field of study, much of wisdom. Embodied wisdom is presented as the which has under valued the embodied cognitive coadunation of objective and subjective perspective, and the more comprehensive that informs our embodied cognitive processes and approach to cognition. In the expands our knowledge from merely a cognitive- view, cognition is not confined to one’s cortices, evaluative psychological process, to an embodied but rather is influenced, perhaps even determined way of understanding. by, one’s subjective experiences in the world [2]. Central to the embodied approach to cognition is Keywords: Cognition, Affect, Subjectivity, Enaction, the idea of enaction, which has emerged as a new Embodied Wisdom. paradigm for understanding cognition [3,4]. Embodied cognition is rooted in the enactive 1. INTRODUCTION perspective, which views cognition as subject to the kinds of experiences that come from having a There is a growing re-thinking of the nature of physical body with multiple sensorimotor cognition, a conceptualization away from formal capabilities. Further, these sensorimotor capacities operations on abstract symbols to a new are embedded in an encompassing biological, paradigmatic view that understands cognition as a psychological, social and cultural context [5,6,7]. In highly embodied and situated process. [1]. The other words, cognitive activity does not take place classical approach to cognition that is bounded by in a vacuum, but in a world where a cognitive agent psychology and sociology alone has left us only is trying to get something accomplished. Thusly, partially adept at understanding the profound role cognition emerges as a correlate of one’s biological of our body in the process of cognition. The experience [8], which is comprised of a situated question of whether mind and body are separate psychological, social and cultural milieu, which has long limited theory and research in cognition. allows one to act skillfully. This skillful know-how is Western science’s Cartesian view that mind and conceptualized as embodied wisdom, which flows body are separate has constrained our attempts to from the unity and coherence of one’s actions in gain a thorough understanding of cognition by the present moment [9] and is part and parcel of undervaluing the neurobiological basis of wisdom. embodied cognition. The purpose of this article is to explain the relationship between mind and body in order to 2. EMBODIED COGNITION provide a more comprehensive understanding of cognition and to bridge the gap between While embodied cognition has many different meanings [10], they all hold that cognitive 218 Proceedings of The 20th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (WMSCI 2016) processes are deeply rooted in the body’s information” [17], and, as such, it is a self- interactions with the world. From a neurobiological organizing [dynamically co-emerging] property that perspective, human beings are biophysically is both embodied [within the living ] and autonomous that are spatially and between [a relational other(s)]. functionally distributed [11], which is to say that humans and their environments are highly For example, among cognitive scientists, it is the structured dynamical systems or “mutually rule of thumb that “unconscious thought is 95% of embedded systems” [8]. An autonomous living all thought – and that may be a serious system is a self-organizing, cybernetic unity that is underestimate. Moreover, the 95% of thought always structurally coupled with its environment below the surface of conscious awareness shapes [12,3,8]. Humans, as [13], cannot and structures all conscious thought” [2]. Yet the separate from their biophysical structure because human body responds to stimuli [behavior] with they are living and functioning in relationships biological imperative and autonomy, most often within and to some type of environment that they prior to awareness of intentionality. This is why one are a part of, not separate from. Living systems as often has to explain one’s behavior and actions complex adaptive systems [14] and self-organizing, after they actually occur. cybernetic unities adapt by learning through experience to transform behavior, or otherwise Finally, in neurophysiology and the neuroscience of they become isolated and die. mind, intentionality is seen as “the process by which meanings grow and operate” [18]. The environment constrains actions and behaviors, “Intentionality precedes consciousness”, and “most yet living systems simultaneously and dynamically intentional behaviors occur without the need for co-emerge with the environment, co-operating by awareness and consciousness up to a point. That specifying, co-creating, and imagining [15] a life, in point [the emerging present moment] is reached complementarity with the environment by means when, in order to understand intentionality, we of synchronicity or co-creativity. As such, each need to think about meaning and to re-present our element or component of the living system thought in words [conceptions/information]. We combines the maintenance of itself with the need to hear and read the words of others in order maintenance of the other, thus “coproducing” and to enhance our own meaning.” The brain makes up co-creating their world [12,3,11,8]. “Living systems its own mind through the body’s own natural are cognitive systems” [5] and “living as a process is selection and dynamic sense-making or co- a process of cognition” [7]. The central idea of the emergence of conception and perception [19], embodied approach to cognition is that the most often through the arousal of affective environment is enacted by one’s living behavior, energy/valence and perceptions of the embodied actions and intentions. mind or emotioning, which in turn triggers cognition and conception or languaging [12]. 3. LIVING BEHAVIOR, ACTION, AND INTENTION In sum, perception and conception, body and mind, feeling and thought, and emotion and cognition are Human forms and levels of behavior in the social inseparable, as they operate with complementarity, world [16] are categorized in three ways: (1) composite unity, and dynamic co-emergence. The behavior, which means to respond in a particular outcome, then, of this dynamic co-emergence way; (2) action, which is behavior with a actually enacts the environment. determinate future goal or object in mind, and (3) social action, which is behavior with the goal of an 4. ENACTION AND THE ENVIRONMENT ‘other’ in mind (or an object with a shared meaning), for example where the ‘other’ is Human beings ‘enact’ the world in which they live; imagined as an individual, group, or organizational and their actions [and behaviors] in the world goal in mind. According to interpersonal actually constitute perception and thereby ground neurobiologist Daniel Siegel, and other scientists cognition (i.e., affect our conceptions) [4]. across multiple disciplines, mind has been defined Cognition in humans is a dynamic biological as “a process that regulates the flow of energy and function and is best understood from the 219 Proceedings of The 20th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (WMSCI 2016) cybernetic, self-organizing, living systems but also the basis of one’s knowing. Thus, the perspective [20]. A dynamic, living system is one body’s processes (i.e., emotions, behaviors, and that continually changes over time. Cognition physical responses) contribute to the meaning we “unfolds as the continuous coevolution of acting, make [3,8,9]. perceiving, imagining, feeling, and thinking” [8]. Thus, the content of one’s mind is not pre-given, Affect and emotion provide the necessary but rather it is one’s bodily experiences that create components and energy that give meaning and and give meaning to the content of one’s mind [1]. sensemaking [25] to our thoughts, beliefs and From infancy, we come to know the world through attitudes, giving individuals a sense that what they the experience of movement rather than from know is correct or not [26]. Affect acts as a sort of adult thoughts. “Without action there is no “world” internal compass that aligns subjective experience and no perception” [4]. In the words of Maturana with external facts [9]. Meaning, however, is also (1987), human beings “bring forth the world in relational. Meaning is generated within the human which it exits.” ‘’ is not pre-given, but rather system for the system itself and is simultaneously co-constructed [co-created] by the individual [12,6] consumed and created by the system as a result of as he/she navigates through his/her environment being coupled to others in its environment. Thus, moment by moment. In other words, enaction can the coupling to the environment (relationships) be seen as “movement into context” [21], whether codetermines meaning—different couplings verbal or non-verbal. Thus, the content and produce different meanings [27,28]. Cognition can relations of concepts of our cognitive processes are be thought of as both an affective and subjective largely determined by embodied (i.e., subjective) (enactive) process that is constituted by one’s lived experiences in the world, rather than pre-given bodily dynamics (emotions, behaviors and physical logical or abstract ones [1]. response). This bodily way of “knowing” (i.e., embodied cognition), combined with one’s 5. THE NATURE OF AFFECT & SUBJECTIVITY experiences in the world, generates a mind that embodies wisdom. Wisdom for the purposes of this If we are to understand cognition as an embodied article, is the way in which we adaptively use process, we must also understand the body’s information from our environment. processes that give rise to emotions, behavior and physical responses. Living is not just a cognitive 6. THE CONCEPT OF WISDOM process, “it’s also an emotive process of sensemaking, or bringing signification and value to Although the concept of wisdom dates back to the existence” [7]. Further, “emotion is the energy of beginning of civilization, the scientific study of transformation” [22]. Living systems do not take in wisdom is relatively recent [29]. Traditionally, information passively from their environments, but discussions of wisdom have been confined to rather they actively participate in the generation of religion and [30], however, presently, meaning in what matters to them [23]. We enact the fields of sociology, psychology and our own life from the value that we both create neurobiology have taken an interest in exploring and place on the information that we take in. the depth and breadth of wisdom. Although contemporary researchers agree that defining As living systems, humans create value, wherein wisdom is a difficult task and includes multiple value is defined as the “…expression of relationship perspectives, current research suggests that its between the evaluating subject and the object of origin is an “adaptive human attribute” that is evaluation…No one can deny the emotional factor rooted in the body’s interaction with its in our value judgments” [24]. Here evaluation can environment [30]. be seen as an affective construct, far more than cognitive only. For individuals, the object of value Meeks and Jeste’s (2009) meta-analysis held can be a thing, a person, a goal, an idea, an wisdom as a neurobiological function comprised of organization, an ideal, even a goal to be achieved. six subcomponents: (1) prosocial As human beings, one’s body is simultaneously the attitudes/behaviors, (2) social decision form and substance of who and what they are as making/pragmatic knowledge of life, (3) emotional individuals; it is not simply something one knows, homeostasis, (4) reflection/self-understanding, (5) 220 Proceedings of The 20th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (WMSCI 2016) value relativism/tolerance, and (6) him or her is valued enough to have meaning acknowledgement of and dealing effectively with assigned to it. Every perceptual experience is in uncertainty/ambiguity. Similarly, Williams, part also an experience of one’s body and, as such, Magelsdorf, Kontra, Nusbaum and Hoeckner (2016) reveals one’s position in the world [27]. Embodied maintain that wisdom is composed of “interrelated responses help to disclose a world of meaning and cognitive, reflective and affective characteristics.” importance (i.e., valence) by focusing attention The mind-body unity was also emphasized by (affective style) and acting as a marker to examine Power (2011) who characterizes wisdom as an one’s thinking. embodied cognitive process that is constitutive of emotions, behavior and physical responses. Figure 1 illustrates how embodied wisdom is conceptualized through empirical research [9]. Recent research suggests that wisdom is an inherent knowledge system that belongs to the cognitive pragmatics of the mind and body.

7. EMBODIED WISDOM

Embodied wisdom is defined as tacit understanding that is brought to one’s awareness by having a physical body with sensorimotor capabilities that are themselves embedded in a subjective ecology (i.e., psychological, social, and cultural context)[9]. Figure 1. Embodied Wisdom. Embodied wisdom is a different way of knowing and represents the transformation of knowledge Embodied wisdom is part and parcel of embodied from merely abstract knowing or conceptualizing to mind, which posits that in human cognition, such a higher, yet deeper, and more comprehensive aspects as ideas, thoughts, concepts, and level of understanding and sense-making [19]), categories are largely affected by the body. These seen now as the embodied interaction of aspects include the perceptual system, the conception and perception. Embodied wisdom is intuitions that underlie the ability to move, the adaptive interplay between an individual activities and interactions with one’s environment, (autonomous agent) and his environment. and the natural, reciprocal understanding of the Embodied wisdom is the coadunation of objective world that is inherent in both the body and mind and subjective realities that inform embodied [3]. “The cognitive self is its own implementation: processes and expands knowledge from merely a its history and its action are of one piece” [32]. cognitive-evaluative psychological process, to an Embodied wisdom is an “inner knowing,” which is embodied way of understanding. quite different from “analytical knowing.” Embodied wisdom is the nexus of intentional This transformation of knowledge into a higher behaviors, cognitive conception and affective level of understanding or “wisdom” content is perception. One can think of embodied wisdom as energized by human affect that bridges both skillful know-how in the coordination of the well- objective and subjective realities. Affect being of oneself and that of others and, as such, dynamically co-emerges with cognition and functions as an adaptive biological response to the behavior during conceptualization in order to information processing demands of one’s create human value for self and others through the environment. use of language, knowledge, shared meanings, individual understanding, and the social 8. CONCLUSION construction of reality [31] as tertiary emotional systems. Embodied wisdom emerges as a function Recent empirical explorations of affective science of body sensations (e.g., emotions, butterfly and neuroscience [33,34,35,36,37] are confirming feelings in the pit of one’s stomach, etc.) that act as that perception/conception, feeling/thought, a type of “body intelligence” that inform an emotion/cognition and body/mind are inseparable individual that whatever is happening to or around and co-emerge dynamically with complementarity. 221 Proceedings of The 20th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (WMSCI 2016)

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