Słowa kluczowe

kognitywistyka |poznanie zakorzenione |poznanie ucieleśnione |poznanie enaktywne |poznanie rozszerzone

Streszczenie

Arystoteles otwiera Metafizykę słynnym twierdzeniem: „Wszyscy ludzie z natury dążą do poznania”. Historię filozofii można analizować, zadając pytanie, czym jest to, co jest poznawane (metafizyka), ale również: w jaki sposób poznajemy to, co istnieje (epistemologia). W ramach epistemologii zaproponowano wiele koncepcji poznania zmysłowego i intelektualnego, ujmowanych w kategoriach wewnętrznych zdolności, procesów lub stanów. Przynajmniej od czasów św. Augustyna próbowano uchwycić to, czym jest poznanie introspekcyjne, wykraczając przy tym poza zmysły i intelekt...

ENGLISH TITLE

Embodied cognition: assumptions, theses and challenges

Keywords

embodied cognition |cognitive science |embodiment |the 4E perspective |embedded cognition |enacted cognition |extended cognition

Abstract

The paper aims at providing a concise presentation of the concept of embodied cognition that emerged in the cognitive sciences a few decades ago and has gained great popularity among empirically and philosophically informed researchers. The term “embodied cognition” is used by the author in two senses. The narrow sense implies that the body plays an important role in the process of cognition. In the broad sense “embodied cognition” is to characterize the general tendency within cognitive science which finds its articulation in the 4E perspective on cognition. The working hypothesis of the 4E perspective is that cognition depends on the characteristics of the agent’s body and its interaction with the physical and social environment. It emphasizes that cognition is: embodied, embedded, enacted, extended. After reconstructing the key concepts and basic assumptions the author offers a brief appraisal of the views under discussion. He claims that the characteristics of such a trend are incomplete and not homogeneity since the perspective encompasses at least a few related and partly overlapping views on cognition. The author concludes that “embodied cognition” serves as a label for a variety of research programs (or program designs) within cognitive science rather than a strictly defined and well-established research tradition or a new paradigm.

Słowa kluczowe

komunikacja |kognitywistyka |ekologia |poznanie ucieleśnione |ekologia poznawcza |poznanie usytuowane

Streszczenie

Niniejszy artykuł jest przeglądem z oryginalnym komponentem badawczym. Przedstawiam w nim ekologię poznawczą jako tradycję badawczą, w obrębie której funkcjonują badania nad poznaniem ucieleśnionym (wąsko i szerzej rozumianym), jak również nad różnymi formami poznania usytuowanego. Warto tu użyć ogólnego terminu „poznanie szerokie”, obejmującego domniemane przypadki i rodzaje procesów poznawczych niesprowadzalnych do aktywności indywidualnego mózgu...

ENGLISH TITLE

Cognitive ecology as a research tradition in cognitive science

Keywords

embodied cognition |cognitive science |communication |wide cognition |ecological heuristics |methodological individualism

Abstract

The article presents cognitive ecology as a research tradition in cognitive science, under which studies on embodied cognition and various forms of situated cognition are conducted. At the same time, the basic heuristic of cognitive ecology and its relationship to methodological individualism are identified. The paper includes the history of the concept of “cognitive ecology”, historical approaches preceding this research tradition, as well as an outline of contemporary research related to it. At the end of the article, the role of the ecological heuristic is summarized.

Słowa kluczowe

architektura |podmiot |poznanie ucieleśnione |podmiot ucieleśniony |afordancja |psychologia ekologiczna

Słowa kluczowe

ciało |umysł |życie |kognitywizm

Słowa kluczowe

metaphor |conceptual metaphor theory |embodied metaphors |embedded metaphoricity |heuristics and the methodology of metaphors |scientific discourse

Streszczenie

The paper analyzes the cognitive functions of metaphors present in both colloquial and scientific discourse. First, presented is the history of research into linguistic metaphors, followed by a discussion of the psycholinguistic turn towards metaphors as thought schemas (George Lakoff and Mark Johnson), as well as metaphoricality embodied in gestures, images and behaviors and their socio-cultural contexts. Based on the analysis of metaphors in the natural sciences, mainly in physics (Max Black, Mary Hesse, Thomas Kuhn) as well as in psychology (Douwe Draaisma), the heuristic and methodological functions of metaphors in science are discussed. Finally, on this basis, a general model of the cognitive functions of metaphor is constructed in which, apart from the cognitive communicative functions, emphasized are also the pragmatic aspects of metaphorical thinking.

Słowa kluczowe

embodiment |meaning |abstract and concrete concepts |language

Streszczenie

The paper addresses the issue of abstract concepts in the embodied and grounded theories of language. This issue seems to be one of the fundamental challenges facing the theories from this group. The aim of this work is to discuss the essence of the problem and to present the most interesting attempts to solve the aforementioned challenge. To this end, we will begin by characterizing the approach of researchers in embodied cognition to the study of language. In the following section, we will look at research data showing differences in the meaning-making processes for abstract and concrete concepts by natural cognitive systems. This section will be followed by a presentation of selected strategies of addressing the problem of abstractness in the research paradigm under discussion. We will conclude with some observations about a grounded and embodied model of language as a whole.

Słowa kluczowe

cognitive semantics |manifest image |George Lakoff |Mark Johnson |Ronald Langacker |image schema

Streszczenie

The author describes two uncontrolled assumptions in cognitive semantics that researchers have barely discussed within this paradigm. Cognitive semantics shows how language shapes human knowledge and what are the basics of conceptualization in language. However, conceptualization must reflect parts of the manifest image of the world. Since primitive cognitive categories are taken from everyday bodily experience, they must form the world as it appears to be in a common prescientific view. The first dogmatic assumption of cognitive semantics says that concepts of folk psychology and common sense physics precede other concepts and categories. The second assumption presupposes the existence of a fundamental theory that could explain the basic concepts and origins of all human cognition and explain how fundamental and primary conceptualizations appear, how they are reflected in categories of language and why some of them precede others. In this sense, it appears to be a universal theory, a theory of all possible knowledge.

Słowa kluczowe

fenomenologia |estetyka |filozofia |estetyka fenomenologiczna

Słowa kluczowe

egzystencjalizm |psychoanaliza |Sigmund Freud |kultura współczesna |rewolucja seksualna

Słowa kluczowe

Søren Kierkegaard |reason |liberalism |humanism |enlightenment |existential philosophy |elitism |equality |faith

Streszczenie

In this article, I propose to use Søren Kierkegaard’s existential critique of the establishment — intellectual, social, and religious — in the name of common people to bring out the dialectic character of populism often overlooked or ignored in the present-day use of the concept. Although populism is generally viewed as negative, Kierkegaard can help us to see that notwithstanding the very real and dangerous threat that populism poses to liberal societies, it is not, from a liberal perspective, unequivocally negative. Populism is endemic to liberalism, and we should not — and cannot — simply try to suppress or eradicate populism from our agendas. Instead, we have to see how populism dialectically reveals serious problems at the heart of contemporary liberalism. A Kierkegaardian approach to populism will allow me to bring out one of the most fundamental of these problems, namely the persistent inequality that permeates liberal democracies undermining the admittedly vague Enlightenment ideal of equality.

Słowa kluczowe

Christianity |Søren Kierkegaard |Existentialism |Lev Shestov |self-justification |modern philosophy

Streszczenie

Lev Shestov is one of the most moving readers of Søren Kierkegaard’s writings. Even if analyses of this Russian philosopher are rather self-analysis geared towards confirming preconceived theses than an unbiased insight into the letter of the Danish philosopher’s text, they are not devoid of value or inspiration. Above all, they are a testimony to Kierkegaard’s manifold influence on existential philosophy and an example of the ambiguity of the Danish thinker’s work. In this article I take into account the comments that appeared after the publication of the book Kierkegaard and existential philosophy (Emmenuel Lévinas, Nikolai Berdyaev) and the full chronology of Shestov’s publications on Kierkegaard, in particular the essay In the bull of Phalaris: the earliest fragment of the book Athens and Jerusalem. On this basis, I put forward a thesis about “Kierkegaard’s Christianity”, which Shestov understands as a system for the self-justification of his own life. The reconstruction of Shestov’s position is supplemented by the comments of authors of comparative studies on Kierkegaard vs. Shestov relations (James M. McLalchan, Joanna Nowotny, José R. Maia Neto).

Słowa kluczowe

disclosure |Simone de Beauvoir |oppression |Racism |Existentialism |narrative identity

Streszczenie

In The ethics of ambiguity, Simone de Beauvoir provides a powerful analysis of how we make our lives meaningful by disclosing the world. There are strong similarities between this account and theories of narrative identity: both describe how we select, interpret, and assess value for the events in our lives. Reading Beauvoir’s existentialist work through the lens of narrative identity allows us to better appreciate the social dimension of disclosure, however, since social narratives play a vital role in constructing our identity. For example, we find that our identities are partly assembled from life-scripts provided from our culture, which may define social groups in negative and rigid terms. This approach, then, allows us to understand the subtleties of racism and similar forms of oppression. Our ability to disclose a meaningful life is compromised by the imposition of restrictive and harmful narratives or by the refusal of others to recognize our chosen identities. The approach also offers ways to remedy these forms of oppression. In particular, it suggests the need to listen to the narratives of oppressed groups and think critically about how our own narratives impose or deny meanings.

Słowa kluczowe

Albert Camus |rebellion |solidarity |repetition |The plague

Streszczenie

When the pandemic broke out in 2020, it was reported that interest in Albert Camus’ book, The plague, had significantly risen. Throughout the past year, many scholars and editors have attempted to formulate reasons for interest in Camus’ existential novel. In the light of these readings and interpretations, we tend to see recent events, our contemporary social and political crises, through the symbols and myths represented in Camus’ novel. This essay offers an attempt at a contemporary re-reading of Camus’ novel, focusing on the character of Tarrou and his appeal to social and political action, as well as resistance and creation. My point is that it is actually Tarrou that represents our struggle, given the complex, social and political aspects of our crisis. My reading, based on Kierkegaard’s idea of repetition, offers a nuanced vision of what rebellion against the plague could mean in the light of our contemporary situation.

Słowa kluczowe

Ludwig Wittgenstein |On certainty |hinge propositions |moral arguments

Streszczenie

In this paper, I discuss the question of the possibility of rational argumentation between two parties who fundamentally disagree. Wittgenstein’s fictitious example of George Edward Moore encountering a king who thinks that the earth came into existence with his birth serves as an example of such a disagreement, but the paper sheds light on differences in moral views rather than epistemic ones. It seems that the second (and third) Wittgenstein rules out the possibility of any rational debate between people who do not share basic beliefs regarding, for instance, the criteria of decency. Contrary to this view, I argue that the so-called “hinge epistemology” developed in On certainty makes room for extra-systemic argumentation as it differentiates hinge propositions — basic certainties that regulate our standard ways of reasoning — from criteria of meaning. One result of this distinction is that we are actually able to understand what the rejection of our hinge propositions would mean and hence we can have doubts about them. The basis for such doubts can be tensions raised by our emotional and behavioural reactions, something Wittgenstein calls “primitive”.

Słowa kluczowe

Martin Heidegger |freedom |thrownness |openness |world |responsibility