Casting a glance at philosophical inquiries of the last decades, with regard to human cognition (in a broad sense), we are witnesses to turns one after the other. The settings were based on the change of scope and perspective of investigations. The so-called linguistic turn refers to “the view that philosophical problems are problems which may be solved (or dissolved) either by reforming language or by understanding more about the language we presently use”. In the 90s, W. J. T. Mitchell (...) coined the phrase pictorial turn, calling attention to the fact that “pictures form a point of peculiar friction and discomfort across a broad range of intellectual inquiry”. In order to eliminate this intellectual discomfort, Mitchell considers exploratory and explicatory approaches that focus on non-linguistic symbol systems and do not consider language as the only source of a significant paradigm regarding meaning. Recently, there has been a shift of emphasis regarding the basis of cognitive skills. This may be the next turn, a sensorimotor or activist one. Although this turn has massive roots in the past, and there is some controversy regarding whether it is fully reconcilable with various findings of cognitive neurology, this view seems to be capable of providing a framework within which the verbalist approach can cease to be the dominant view. (shrink)

It may strike some as incongruous to discuss both new media and Heidegger in a single article. Heidegger died in 1976, so he can hardly be considered as having first-hand experience with so-called new media. He is best known for his endeavour of destructing traditional Western metaphysics, and for an organic extension of this destruction, his philosophy of technology. He explicitly touches upon two communications-oriented technological inventions: the radio and the typewriter. In both cases, his criticism is quite obvious. Despite (...) all this, some of his considerations make it worthwhile to further investigating his criticism. I will start with an overview of the longstanding critical attitude toward any new media, and I will attempt to define some key terms with regard to old and new media. Then I will outline the philosophical background of the Heideggerian criticism, and investigate the lessons we can learn from Heidegger. (shrink)

Although scientific practice sometimes encounters philosophical dif- ficulties, it cannot shoulder the burden of resolving them. This can lead to controversies. An unavoidable difficulty is rooted in the linguistic attitude, i.e., in the fact that to a considerable extent we express our thoughts in words. I will attempt to illuminate some important characteristics of linguistic expres- sion which lead to paradoxical situations, identifiable thanks to philosophy. In my argument, I will investigate how the notion of consciousness has altered over the (...) course of philosophical investigation and how it relates to recent scientific practice. In conclusion, I will focus on a few recent so-called radical positions in philosophy with regard to a framework within which consciousness and more generally mental phenomena can be regarded in a new light, as well as on the barriers we face when trying to unify scientific results. (shrink)

Various theories suggest conscious phenomena are based exclusively on brain activity, while others regard them as a result of the interaction between embodied agents and their environment. In this paper, I will consider whether this divergence entails the acceptance of the fact that different theories can be applied in different scales (as in the case of physics), or if they are reconcilable. I will suggest that investigating how the term representation is used can reveal some hints, building upon which we (...) can bridge the gulf between the two poles in the long run. In my argumentation I will rely on some earlier philosophical insights, such as those of Descartes, James, Wittgenstein and Merleau-Ponty, as well as research based on global workspace theory, and the conceptions of embodied and enacted cognition. I will suggest that within a wider horizon of investigation, the ambiguity as regards the term representation will decrease. (shrink)

Enacting Images is devoted to images as they can mobilize cognition and theorizing. Though we can speak of a pictorial turn now that images have become a distinct and full-fledged topic of investigation, some may continue to cling to the impression that images should still be considered within a fundamentally representationalist framework. As an alternative, the enactive approach provides a conceptual setup within which images, beyond their informational, immersive, and aesthetic power, can be considered as being the manifestations of a (...) new epistemic access to the world. The present volume is a collection of essays that reflectively investigate the theoretical prerequisites, scope, and limits of enactive approach. (shrink)