In search of the enactive

introduction to special issue on enactive experience

Steve Torrance

pp. 357-368

in: Steve Torrance (ed), Enactive experience, Phenomenology and the cognitive sciences 4 (4), 2005.

Abstract

In the decade and a half since the appearance of Varela, Thompson and Rosch's workThe Embodied Mind,enactivism has helped to put experience and consciousness, conceived of in a distinctive way, at the forefront of cognitive science. There are at least two major strands within the enactive perspective: a broad view of what it is to be an agent with a mind; and a more focused account of the nature of perception and perceptual experience. The relation between these two strands is discussed, with an overview of the papers presented in this volume.