Article: En-minding the Extended Body

[Balder]

 

 

12 August 2003 | Draft En-minding the Extended Body Enactive engagement in conceptual shapeshifting and deep ecology - / - Introduction Sets of operational concepts in collective enterprises Sets of animal appendages Animal movement and conceptual exoskeletons Dynamic coordination of sets in movement Indigenous insights Animal locomotion: example of walking as a cognitive metaphor Shapeshifting Insights into shapeshifting from collective behaviour Conceptual endoskeleton vs Conceptual exoskeleton Identity, invariance and enactivism Unconscious models as beasts of the imagination Endangering species by rationalizing the environment Memetics as the under-explored analogue to genetics Memetic engineering: a Western discovery ? Memetic engineering: an Eastern practice ? Neurobiological clarification Memetic engineering: Western magical arts ? Conclusion References Introduction This is an exploration of the extent to which the phenomena of the perceived environment are effectively conceptual "coat hangers" on which individuals project dynamics that they are unable to encompass conceptually within accepted mindsets -- whether learnt or inculcated. Emphasis here is on various species of animals having been unconsciously "delegated" by humans to function as carriers for such projections. The contention is that, in a sense, the complex dynamics of living to which humans are exposed have, in part, been effectively "outsourced" to animals because of inability to handle many aspects of these dynamics.   Once outsourced in this way, the mind effectively withdraws from full engagement with the environment. With loss of recognition that functions were delegated in this way, humans then deal with the environment in an instrumental manner without recognizing what they are doing to their own humanity -- and to the ecosystem on which they depend for their survival. This process is paralleled by the development of conceptual "models" through which humans then endeavour to describe and articulate strategies of human behaviour, whether individually or collectively. The relation between the anatomy and behaviour of animal species in the environment and the operation of such models is therefore considered here.   The concern of what follows is given useful focus by the introduction to George Monbiot's critique of the prevailing social attitude with respect to the threat to humanity of climate change -- to which there is a collective refusal to respond rationally (With eyes wide shut. Guardian, 12 August 2003): We live in a dream world. With a small, rational part of the brain, we recognise that our existence is governed by material realities, and that, as those realities change, so will our lives. But underlying this awareness is the deep semi-consciousness that absorbs the moment in which we live, then generalises it, projecting our future lives as repeated instances of the present. This, not the superficial world of our reason, is our true reality. All that separates us from the indigenous people of Australia is that they recognise this and we do not. Our dreaming will, as it has begun to do already, destroy the conditions necessary for human life on Earth. The concern here is not with the philosophy of deep ecology -- with which it has many sympathies -- but rather with the actual way in which non-human living species carry conceptual modalities that are essential to both human survival and thrival. One consequence of this perspective is that it indicates how the environment is a knowledge carrier -- as some indigenous peoples have emphasized -- which humans destroy at their peril (Darrell A. Posey. Cultural and Spiritual Values of Biodiversity, 1999; David Abram. The Spell of the Sensuous: perception and language in a more-than-human world, 1997). Recovery of this connection is seen as a vital means of giving operational meaning and value to features of the environment that will otherwise continue to be degraded and destroyed in the name of safeguarding the human species.   More particularly, the concern is with how any individual is sustained by "en-minding" the extended body that is their natural environment. This is seen as related to the cognitive concerns of enactivism outlined by Francesco Varela alone (Laying Down a Path in Walking, 1987) and with others (The Embodied Mind: cognitive science and human expression, 1991).

 

Read the full essay here.

[Edward theurj Berge]

This is from section “neurobiological clarification,” quoting de Nicolas:

“Buddhism focuses all its attention to overcome conditioning in the life we have before we become conscious of ourselves, that is, our life in the amygdala.”

Sound familiar?

[Balder]

Yes. :-) I thought you might appreciate that perspective.

[Edward theurj Berge]

Also in the quoted section (above) he talks of “original and originating” right brain areas being in touch with “original experience.” Said areas seem to generate mental images akin to Lakoff’s image schemas. And yet it appears for this author one gets in direct touch with “reality” via these brain areas rather than seeing it more postmetaphysically as does Lakoff? I can only guess, having read just this section so far.

[Balder]

That may be the perspective of the author he is quoting in that section, but it doesn't appear to be the perspective of the author of this essay, at least from what I've read so far. In one of his older pieces, he mentions Lakoff's work and builds on the notions of embodied, metaphoric cognition to suggest ways of moving (internally and externally) that can support (multiple) alternative realities -- partly through a positive reframing of the "entrapment" posed by our metaphoric frames.

Here's the essay:

Navigating Alternative Conceptual Realities - Clues to the Dynamics...

Introduction

This paper is concerned with how to move and navigate within alternative realities and paradigms -- if they can be identified beyond the metaphoric frameworks in which people may unknowingly be trapped. But it is assumed here that any such reality is as much framed by the style of movement within it as by recognition of its existence. In many respects a new paradigm is indeed the way in which people move -- physically or conceptually -- and the patterns of that movement with which they identity. In this way the reality is as much defined by those dynamics as by any sense of a static framework within which that movement occurs. The static features may even be defined or engendered in the process of movement -- a Buddhist perspective echoed by Francisco Varela's book title: Laying Down a Path in Walking: essays on enactive cognition (1997) [more].

The perspective emphasized here is that efforts to identify and enable much sought new paradigms are unlikely to affect behaviour unless they are accompanied by a new style of movement, whether conceptual or attitudinal. This is recognized to some degree, despite the material bias, in such policy themes as 'new patterns of consumption'.

The paper endeavours to identify some useful clues and guidelines to such movement, notably from a number of spiritual traditions but also from disciplines of the body that are assiduously and popularly practiced by many possessing a high degree of kinetic intelligence -- such as skateboarders. The emphasis is placed on widely accessible understandings rather than on reference to other models. The eclectic sense of 'discipline' is inspired by the work of Paul Feyerabend (Against Method: outline of an anarchistic theory of knowledge, 1975 [review]). Varela's perspective is associated with what is termed enactivism [more; more; more], as used by Gregory Bateson, Humberto Maturana, E Rosch and E Thomson to label their theories. It is itself associated with radical constructivism [more]. The "Experientialism" of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson is closely related to enactivism. The text amplifies and extends arguments presented in earlier papers.

The particular focus of this paper is on the possibility of re-reading the clues from spiritual traditions in the light of the disciplines of movement. The core argument is that whilst spiritual traditions point to a better, essentially static, condition to be achieved through following their guidelines, the injunctions in their guidelines are do's and don'ts that give no sense of the dynamics of the experiential reality that their practice is claimed to enable. As a result they appear essentially static and moralistic, and disconnected from the patterns of movement that people find meaningful -- setting up, through misapplication of those guidelines, a somewhat antiquated moral barrier that prevents interpretation of those guidelines in ways that would be highly valued by those who seek a richer and more dynamic reality. It is in this sense that this paper is presumptuously impatient with the conventional dogmatic application of spiritual guidelines and is instead focused on decoding them for insights into more appropriate ways to enable and move in new realities -- and thus to sustain them.

Whilst such guidelines may well be vital to what might be understood as 'attitude control' and coordination, the latter can be usefully understood as prerequisites to any process of shifting attitude into subtler perceptions -- described metaphorically through somewhat misleading terms such as 'ascent' or 'escape'. The distinction between attitude control and ascent for an individual may then be compared with the various highly elaborated challenges of launching any vehicle into planetary orbit [a theme to be explored in a subsequent paper].

Metaphoric Entrapment (Annex 1)
Clues to Movement and Attitude Control (Annex 2)
Combining Clues to Movement and Attitude Control (Annex 3)
Clues to 'Ascent' and 'Escape' (Annex 4)
Combining Clues to 'Ascent' and 'Escape' (Annex 5)

[Full Essay Available Here.]

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