Abstract

The paper discusses the concept of the cognitive niche and distinguishes the latter from the metabolic niche. By using these posits I unpack certain ideas that are crucial for the enactivist movement, especially for its original formulation proposed by Varela, Thompson and Rosh. Drawing on the ontology of location, boundaries, and parthood, I argue that enacting the world can be seen as the process of cognitive niche construction. Moreover, it turns out that enactivism—as seen through the lens of the conceptual framework proposed in the paper—considers cognition as a kind of connection between the subject and the world. This post is pointed to as the key idea laid down in enactivism.

Highlights

  • I shall address the idea of enactment from a standpoint that has not been taken yet, it seems well-suited to the task, namely the standpoint of ontology of location, boundaries, and parthood

  • The latter is expressed in terms of location in a niche, in a special kind of niche dubbed the “cognitive niche,” while the former is characterized as the process of constructing a cognitive niche

  • The notion of environment plays a pivotal role when one raises the question of why the ontology of location, parthood and boundaries is supposed to help in the task of understanding enactment

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Summary

Introduction

The ontology of boundaries, location, and parthood can contribute to an understanding of enactment, I argue, because it provides conceptual tools to spell out the two crucial ideas articulated by VTR: first of all, the notion of enactment-of -the-world (hereafter “enactment” for the sake of simplicity) and secondly, the accompanying notion of being-in-the-world The latter is expressed in terms of location in a niche, in a special kind of niche dubbed the “cognitive niche,” while the former is characterized as the process of constructing a cognitive niche. The proposed rendering of the issue seeks to resolve the idealism versus realism controversy frequently raised with respect to enactment (e.g. Taraborelli and Mossio 2008; Pascal and O’Regan 2008) by adhering to the existence of a mind-independent world, yet one which manifests itself and becomes categorized due to the activity of the cognizing subject

On the significance of enactment
The pivotal notion of environment
The niche
The cognitive niche
Niche construction and connection
Patterns of co-determination
The realism versus idealism controversy
Further discussion and closing remarks
Full Text
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