CFP: Topoi special issue on Progress in Radical Embodiment

Call for papers: Topoi special issue on "Progress in Radical Embodiment"

Guest editors

Edward Baggs, University of Southern Denmark

Guilherme Sanches de Oliveira, Technical University of Berlin

Miguel Segundo-Ortin, University of Murcia

Vicente Raja, University of Murcia

Description

We invite contributed papers of up to 6,000 words for a special issue of Topoi that aims to explore and document progress toward the establishment of a positive programmatic framework for radical embodied cognitive science.

The term “radical embodied cognitive science” was first suggested in the 1990s as a contrast term with regular (i.e., non-radical) embodied cognitive science (Clark, 1997). Unlike their non-radical colleagues, radical embodied cognitive scientists were concerned with rejecting altogether representational and internalist explanations of cognitive activity (Varela and Thompson, 2001). While many found these negative arguments persuasive, some philosophers recognized that a new approach to cognitive science cannot be based on negative arguments alone, but must also coalesce around a set of positive programmatic axioms that are broadly agreed on by the scientific community (Chemero and Silberstein, 2008). In recent years, a number of researchers have sought to establish a more positive programmatic foundation for a radical embodied approach to cognitive science (Baggs and Chemero, 2021; Chemero, 2009; Sanches de Oliveira, 2023).

There is now widespread agreement that radical embodied cognitive science comprises a set of theoretical and methodological tools, and a distinct intellectual heritage. Explanation in radical embodied cognitive science takes the animal–environment system as its unit of analysis (Favela and Chemero, 2015); to study this system, researchers draw on methods from dynamical systems theory, applied phenomenology, ethnography, and, increasingly, cognitive neuroscience. The field is unified to the extent that it draws on a well-defined intellectual lineage that includes American pragmatism, Gestalt psychology, phenomenology, and ecological psychology (Heft, 2001; Käufer and Chemero, 2021; Segundo-Ortin and Raja, 2024).

Radical embodiment is well established as a framework for studying perception and action in the context of motor control (Fajen, 2021; Warren, 2006). Emerging strands of research promise to extend the radical embodied approach into new domains. These include neuroscience (Anderson, 2014; Favela, 2024; Raja, 2024; Raja and Anderson 2019), moral and affective psychology (Caravà and Benenti, 2024; Mojica and Gastelum Vargas, 2021), developmental science (Ciaunica, 2019), social interaction (Baggs, 2021; Kyselo, 2014; Segundo-Ortin, 2024), and so-called higher cognitive activities including language (Rączaszek-Leonardi et al., 2018; Sanches de Oliveira et al., 2021). The project of extending the scope of radical embodiment brings novel theoretical challenges. Contributions to the special issue will discuss and engage with these challenges.

The deadline for initial submission of manuscripts (maximum 6,000 words) is January 31, 2025.

Possible topics include (but are not limited to)

• Radical embodied cognitive neuroscience: foundational issues

• Socializing radical embodied cognitive science

• Radical embodiment and developmental science

• The “scaling-up problem”: to what extent is it possible to offer radical embodied explanations for cognitive activities that have traditionally been considered “representation-hungry”, such as language or remembering

• Radical embodiment and moral philosophy

• Radical embodiment and agency

Invited contributors

Marta Benenti, University of Murcia

Anthony Chemero, University of Cincinnati

Luis Favela, Indiana University

Melina Gastelum-Vargas, UNAM (Mexico)

Harry Heft, Denison University, Ohio

How to submit

Manuscripts should be submitted via the journal’s submission portal. When submitting, select as article type from the dropdown menu “S.I. Radical embodiment (Baggs et al)”. Follow the journal’s submission guidelines here
https://link.springer.com/journal/11245/submission-guidelines (the link for submissions can also be found via this link).

The journal follows a double-blind peer review policy.

Enquiries may be sent to Edward Baggs  ([email protected])

References

Anderson, M. L. (2014). After phrenology: neural reuse and the interactive brain. MIT Press.

Baggs, E. (2021). All affordances are social: foundations of a Gibsonian social ontology. Ecological Psychology, 33(3–4), 257–278.https://doi.org/10.1080/10407413.2021.1965477

Baggs, E. and Chemero, A. (2021). Radical embodiment in two directions. Synthese, 198 (Suppl 9), 2175–2190.https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-018-02020-9

Caravà, M., Benenti, M. (2024). Not so blue to be sad: affective affordances and expressive properties in affective regulation. Topoi, 43, 713–724.https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-024-10037-8

Chemero, A. (2009). Radical embodied cognitive science. MIT Press.

Chemero A and Silberstein M. (2008). After the philosophy of mind: replacing scholasticism with science. Philosophy of Science. 2008;75(1):1-27.https://doi.org/10.1086/587820

Ciaunica, A. (2019). The ‘meeting of bodies’: empathy and basic forms of shared experiences. Topoi 38, 185–195.https://doi-org.proxy1-bib.sdu.dk/10.1007/s11245-017-9500-x

Clark, A. (1997). Being there: putting brain, body, and world together again. MIT Press.

Fajen, B. R. (2021). Visual control of locomotion. Cambridge University Press.https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108870474

Favela, L. (2024). The ecological brain. Routledge.

Favela, L. H. and Chemero, A. (2015). The animal–environment system. In Coello, Y. and Fischer, M. H. (eds), Perceptual and Emotional Embodiment (pp. 67–82). Routledge.

Heft, H. (2001). Ecological psychology in context: James Gibson, Roger Barker, and the legacy of William James’s radical empiricism. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Käufer, S. and Chemero, A. (2021). Phenomenology: an introduction (second edition). Polity.

Kyselo, M. (2014). The body social: an enactive approach to the self. Frontiers in Psychology. 5:986.https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00986

Mojica, L., Gastelum Vargas, M. (2021). The affective and normative intentionality of skilled performance: a radical embodied approach. Synthese, 199, 8205–8230.https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-021-03159-8

Rączaszek-Leonardi, J., Nomikou, I., Rohlfing, K. J., & Deacon, T. W. (2018). Language development from an ecological perspective: ecologically valid ways to abstract symbols. Ecological Psychology, 30(1), 39–73.https://doi.org/10.1080/10407413.2017.1410387

Raja, V. (2024). The motifs of radical embodied neuroscience. European Journal of Neuroscience.https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.16434

Raja, V., & Anderson, M. L. (2019). Radical embodied cognitive neuroscience. Ecological Psychology, 31(3), 166–181.https://doi.org/10.1080/10407413.2019.1615213

Sanches de Oliveira, G. (2023). The strong program in embodied cognitive science. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 22, 841–865.https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-022-09806-w

Sanches de Oliveira, G., Raja, V. & Chemero, A. (2021). Radical embodied cognitive science and “Real Cognition”. Synthese, 198 (Suppl 1), 115–136.https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-019-02475-4

Segundo-Ortin, M. (2024). Socio-cultural norms in ecological psychology: the education of intention. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 23: 1–19.https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-022-09807-9

Segundo-Ortin M and Raja V. (2024). Ecological Psychology. Cambridge University Press.https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009451413

Thompson, E. and Varela, F. J. (2001). Radical embodiment: neural dynamics and consciousness. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 5(10): 418–425.https://doi.org/10.1016/S1364-6613(00)01750-2

Warren, W. H. (2006). The dynamics of perception and action. Psychological Review, 113(2), 358–389.https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.113.2.358