Embodied agentive habits: between sedimentation and ongoing ground

Abstract

Abstract This paper argues that human signification is governed by “agentive systems,” inspired by an extended framework that combines the Practical Logic of Cognitive Systems and Peircean semiotics. An agentive system encompasses both the efficient anticipation of resource utilization and the use of actual available resources, including bodily capacities in the form of embodied habits. These resources are allocated based on agendas (goals) pursued by human agents in their interactions with the environment. In this context, signification involves the meaning of actions embedded within their agentive system, encompassing the agent performing the actions, the action’s goal or agenda, and the available resources, whether bodily (skills, abilities, capacities) or non-bodily (objects, signs). After presenting the general framework in which the concept of an agentive system is approached, I develop a proposal drawing on insights from Göran Sonesson’s reflections on the importance of sedimentation and Lifeworld for semiotics. This proposal highlights how the acquisition of embodied habits facilitates and promotes the significance of cultural products, while their deployment allows for the emergence of situated signification.