Are facts about the nervous system sufficient to explain intelligent cognition? Can mental health sufficiently be explained by neuroscience? Do brainless living beings possess cognitive capacities in their adaptation to survive their environments? Does intelligent cognition possess properties that do not reduce to the nervous system? In this seminar, we will explore the so-called E-Cognition positions as a rejection of the reduction of intelligent cognition to the nervous system. Specifically, we will appraise cognition in terms of dynamically unfolding, situated embodied interactions between the organism and aspects of their world. Further, we will examine embodied cognition through the lens of the theory that seems best equipped to formally respond to questions resulting from intelligent interactions with the environment — Dynamical Systems Theory.
Introductory literature:
Newen, A., De Bruin, L., & Gallagher, S. (Eds.). (2018). The Oxford handbook of 4E cognition. Oxford University Press.
Broer, H., Takens, F., & Hasselblatt, B. (Eds.). (2010). Handbook of dynamical systems. Elsevier.
