Integrative biophilosophy

Project management: Dr. Mark-Oliver Casper

Collaborators: Giuseppe Flavio Artese, M.Sc.

Funding: Central Research Funding ZFF of the University of Kassel

Duration: September 2019 - expected. August 2023

Project description

The Philosophy of Situated Cognition (PSK) deals with the 4E theories. These approaches, also known as extended mind, enactivism, embedded mind and embodiment theory, were developed in an interdisciplinary manner with significant participation of philosophy in order to explain cognitive phenomena (such as motor control or spatial navigation). The different theoretical approaches that the 4E spectrum allows are accompanied by a variance of applied methods as well as different demands on possible explanations of the phenomena in question.

The main task of the PSK is the systematic recording and philosophical evaluation of the methods used in the 4E theories. The aim of the project is to develop a comprehensive methodology of the 4E theories that analyzes on which philosophical foundations, with which types of explanations, in which methodological context and with which methodological means research on the topic of "situated cognition" can best be realized and coordinated across disciplines. The PSK contains descriptive parts that describe what researchers are actually doing on the topic of 4E, as well as normative parts that describe what these researchers should change or do in order to improve their research.

Like integrative biophilosophy, which is dedicated to the methodological analysis of biological research programs (as in the analysis of behavioral research, for example), the PSK pursues such an analysis for situated cognition research. For this analysis, the PSK is partly oriented towards preliminary biophilosophical work for two reasons. (i) Integrative biophilosophy has developed a concept from the philosophy of science with which research practices can be examined (namely the development of "methodological signatures of research programs"). This concept can be systematically extended to cognitive science topics within the framework of PSK. (ii) A central tenet of 4E theories is that cognitive phenomena emerge through the competent interaction of a living being with its environment. Because biological behavioral research is devoted to complex animal-environment relationships, a PSC oriented toward the critical analysis of behavioral research methods can help structure cognitive science research that is committed to that central proposition; the PSC can help understand how animal-environment studies can be utilized in cognitive science.

Selected publications

• Casper, M.-O.. (2019). Social Enactivism. On Situating High-Level Cognitive States and ProcessesBerlin/New York: De Gruyter.
• Casper, M. -O., Nyakatura, J. A., Pawel, A., Reimer, Ch., Schubert, T., & Lauschke, M.. (2018). The Movement-Image Compatibility Effect: Embodiment Theory Interpretations of Motor Resonance with Digitized Photographs, Drawings, and Paintings, Frontiers in Psychology - Perception Science, Vol. 9, Article 991 doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00991
• Casper, M. -O.. (2017). Long Term Epistemic Actions, AVANT. Trends in Interdisciplinary Studies, Vol. VIII (1): 119-130.

Selected lectures

• Aug. 16, 2018: Casper, M.-O.: "What are beliefs? On an enactivist problem". Invited talk at the Institute for Philosophy, Technical University Berlin.
• Feb. 22, 2018: Casper, M.-O.: "Putting Neo-Pragmatist Flesh to the Bones of Enactivism. How Enactivists Can Answer the Scaling-Up Problem". Invited talk at the conference "Naturally Evolving Minds: Controversies, Developments, Interventions", University of Wollongong (Australia).
• Sept. 25, 2017: Casper, M.-O.: "What Is Social Enactivism?" Talk at the COSTECH Laboratory for the "CRED" (Cognition Research and Enaction Design) research group, Sorbonne Universités/Université de Technologie de Compiègne (France).