A world-involving theory of agency: review of Sensorimotor Life: An Enactive Proposal by Ezequiel Di Paolo, Thomas Buhrmann, and Xabier Barandiaran. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2017. (April 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ramírez-Vizcaya, Susana
• Is Part Of: Adaptive behavior. Volume 30:Number 2(2022)
• Page Start: 205
• Page End: 208
• Publication Date: 2022-04
• Subjects: Agency -- sensorimotor contingencies -- sensorimotor learning -- enactive approach -- habits -- 4E cognition; Animal behavior -- Periodicals; Animals -- Adaptation -- Periodicals; Adaptability (Psychology) -- Periodicals; Adaptation, Psychological -- Periodicals; Artificial intelligence -- Periodicals; 591.5
• DOI: 10.1177/1059712320976676
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1741-2633

Abstract

Sensorimotor theory of perception has been criticized for its ambiguity about the need for internal representations and the lack of a proper account of agency and subjective experience. The book under review offers a compelling non-representational, world-involving interpretation, and operationalization of this theory, showing that alternatives to representationalism are viable. It also provides a thought-provoking theory of sensorimotor agency and the pre-reflective experience of action that builds on the enactive notions of autonomy and sense-making. The account provided in this book fits into a radically embodied, enactive, and extended cognitive science. However, the notion of the environment requires further conceptual clarification by the enactive camp.