Pragmatic realism

Towards a reconciliation of enactivism and realism

Bibliographic Data

ID21751202
AuthorsCharles Legg (0000-0002-0231-5415, Deakin University), André Sant’Anna (0000-0002-2239-7243, University of Geneva, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume24
Issue1
Pages213-230
Publication date2025-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePhenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1568-7759 • E-ISSN: 1572-8676
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s11097-024-09959-w
PMID39872208
OpenAlexW4392026723
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited28

This paper addresses some apparent philosophical tensions between realism and enactivism by means of Charles Peirce’s pragmatism. Enactivism’s Mind-Life Continuity thesis has been taken to commit it to some form of anti-realist ‘world-construction’ which has been considered controversial. Accordingly, a new realist enactivism is proposed by Zahidi ( Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 13 (3), 461–475, 2014), drawing on Ian Hacking’s ‘entity realism’, which places subjects in worlds comprised of the things that they can successfully manipulate. We review this attempt, and argue that whilst Zahidi rightly urges enactivists towards ‘internal realism’, he cannot sustain a non-negotiable aspect of realism that is crucial for scientific progress – the claim that multiple subjects inhabit the same world . We explore Peirce’s pragmatism as an alternative solution, foregrounding his distinction between existence and reality, and his inquiry-based account of cognition. These theoretical innovations, we argue, fruitfully generalize Zahidi’s manipulation-based enactivist realism to a richer, inquiry-based enactivist realism. We explore how this realism’s pan-species monism about truth encourages and supports the investigation of non-human animal cognition, and conclude by considering some implications of our discussion for long-standing realism debates within pragmatism

Autopoiesis · Direct and indirect realism · Enactivism · Epistemology · Internalism and externalism · Metaphysics · Nanomesh · Philosophical realism · Philosophy of mind · Philosophy of science · Pragmatism · Realism · Scientific realism · Embodied and Extended Cognition · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Philosophy · Philosophy and History of Science

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