Constraint-evading surrogacy
The missing piece in Radical Embodied Cognition’s non-representationalist account of intentionality
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21751111 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Andrew Robinson (0000-0003-3403-4674, University of Exeter), Christopher Southgate (0000-0001-5712-6024, University of Exeter, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 21 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 813-834 |
| Publication date | 2022-09-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1568-7759 • E-ISSN: 1572-8676 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s11097-022-09824-8 |
| OpenAlex | W4282925351 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 41 |
Radical Embodied Cognition (REC) is an anti-representationalist approach to the nature of basic cognition proposed by Daniel Hutto and Erik Myin. While endorsing REC’s arguments against a role for contentful representations in basic cognition we suggest that REC’s ‘teleosemiotic’ approach to intentional targeting results in a ‘grey area’ in which it is not clear what kind of causal-explanatory concept is involved. We propose the concept of constraint-evading surrogacy as a conceptual basis for REC’s account of intentional targeting. The argument is developed via a reconsideration of Peter Godfrey-Smith’s ‘environmental complexity thesis’. We show how constraint-evading surrogacy clarifies REC’s account of intentionality by specifying the role of external natural signs and certain internal states (REC’s ‘Local Indexical Guides’). We argue that the resulting view of intentionality can be extended to proto-biotic autocatalytic systems, offering support for the life-mind continuity thesis. We leave open the question of whether it is helpful to consider constraint-evading surrogacy to be a form of (non-contentful) representation, but we suggest that there is a prima facie case for such a view
Cognition · Cognitive science · Direct and indirect realism · Embodied cognition · Epistemology · Intentionality · Metaphysics · Perception · Philosophy of mind · Philosophy of science · Prima facie · Chemistry · Embodied and Extended Cognition · Origins and Evolution of Life · Philosophy · Philosophy and History of Science · Psychology
Peirce's Theory of Signs
Language, Thought, and Other Biological Categories
Enactivist Interventions
Embodied Cognition
The Origins of Order
Evolving Enactivism
Complexity and the Function of Mind in Nature
From the Phenomenology to the Mechanisms of Consciousness
What Might Cognition Be, If Not Computation?
On r- and K-Selection
A Mark of the Mental
On the importance of correctly locating content
Arguing about representation
The Concept of Information in Biology
Embodied Cognition is Not What you Think it is
Radicalizing Enactivism. Basic Minds without Content
| Highly cited | No |
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