Constraint-evading surrogacy: the missing piece in Radical Embodied Cognition’s non-representationalist account of intentionality?

Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 21 (4):813-834 (2022)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Radical Embodied Cognition 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. 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 representation, but we suggest that there is a prima facie case for such a view.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,593

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Non-representationalist cognitive science and realism.Karim Zahidi - 2014 - Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 13 (3):461-475.
On Ur-intentionality.Ludovic Soutif & Carlos Mario Márquez Sosa - 2021 - Revista de Filosofia Moderna E Contemporânea 9 (2):79-99.
Embodied Social Cognition.Shannon Spaulding - 2011 - Philosophical Topics 39 (1):141-162.
Embodying Artifact Production Knowledge.Susanna Melkonian-Altshuler - 2018 - Proceedings of a Body of Knowledge, Access at Https://Escholarship.Org/Uc/Item/92J9B1J0.
Intentionality and Embodied Cognition.Mark Rowlands - 2011 - Philosophical Topics 39 (1):81-97.
Is Paid Surrogacy a Form of Reproductive Prostitution? A Kantian Perspective.Tatiana Patrone - 2018 - Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 27 (1):109-122.
Know-How, procedural knowledge, and choking under pressure.Massimiliano Cappuccio - 2015 - Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 14 (2):361-378.

Analytics

Added to PP
2022-06-15

Downloads
14 (#846,545)

6 months
7 (#175,814)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?