Natural & normative dynamical coupling

Abstract

Cognitive science has been dealt with the unique task of straddling and bridging the gaps between the mind and the body. One such gap that has not received as much attention within the literature is the gap between the natural and the normative. We propose that the theory of autopoiesis can be used for bridging this gap, and, so, we incorporate autopoiesis into the framework of dynamical systems theory in order to ground a physicalist theory of normativity. Within this framework, the dynamical coupling between an autopoietic system and its environment can be either natural or normative. We then construct a full-fledged theory of how cognition achieves normativity and find that we are confronted by the frame problem. We review Vervaeke, Lillicrap and Richards’ (2012) theory of the mechanisms by which cognitive agents realize relevance and find that it promises to circumvent the frame problem. After augmenting their theory with our own theory of learning, we find that the frame problem has been circumvented in a way that meets the necessary conditions for normativity. We finally represent our theoretical findings in a dynamical systems framework and discuss some broad applications for social and psychological science.