Is perceiving bodily action?

Kenneth Aizawa

pp. 933-946

in: Objectivity, space, and mind, Phenomenology and the cognitive sciences 18 (5), 2019.

Abstract

One of the boldest claims one finds in the enactivist and embodied cognition literature is that perceiving is bodily action (PBA). Research on the role of eye movements in vision have been thought to support PBA, whereas research on paralysis has been thought to pose no challenge to PBA. The present paper, however, will argue just the opposite. Eye movement research does not support PBA, whereas paralysis research presents a strong challenge that seems not to have been fully appreciated.