Enactive Pragmatism And Ecological Psychology
HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY published: 20 October 2020 doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.538644 Enactive Pragmatism and Ecological Psychology Matthew Crippen1,2* 1Department of Philosophy, Grand Valley State University, Allendale Charter Township, MI, United States, 2Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany A widely cited roadblock to bridging ecological psychology and enactivism is that the former identifies with realism and the latter identifies with constructivism, which critics charge is subjectivist. A pragmatic reading, however, suggests non-mental forms of constructivism that simultaneously fit core tenets of enactivism and ecological realism. After advancing a pragmatic version of enactive constructivism that does not obviate realism, I reinforce the position with an empirical illustration: Physarum polycephalum, a communal unicellular organism that leaves slime trails that form chemical barriers that it avoids in foraging explorations. Here, environmental building and sensorimotor engagement are part of the same process with P. polycephalum coordinating around self-created, affordance-bearing geographies, which nonetheless exist independently in ways described by ecological realists. For ecological psychologists, affordances are values, meaning values are external to the perceiver. I argue that agent-enacted values have the same Edited by: status and thus do not obviate ecological realism or generate subjectivism. The Anthony Chemero, University of Cincinnati, United States constructivist-realist debate organizes around the emphasis that enactivists and ecological Reviewed by: theorists respectively place on the inner constitution of organisms vs. the structure of Harry Heft, environments. Building on alimentary themes introduced in the P. polycephalum example Denison University, United States and also in Gibson’s work, I go on to consider how environment, brain, visceral systems, Ed Baggs, University of Western Ontario, and even bacteria within them enter perceptual loops.
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