Enacting the aesthetic: A model for raw cognitive dynamics

One challenge faced by aesthetics is the development of an account able to trace out the continuities and discontinuities between general experience and aesthetic experiences. Regarding this issue, in this paper, I present an enactive model of some raw cognitive dynamics that might drive the progressive emergence of aesthetic experiences from the stream of general experience. The framework is based on specific aspects of John Dewey’s pragmatist philosophy and embodied aesthetic theories, while also taking into account research in ecological psychology, cognitive sciences, and dynamic systems theory. The model focuses on dynamically relevant nodes at the pre-reflective and the reflective side of experience that would work as nested rhythmic constraints at different cognitive timescales with the potential to shunt experiences toward the aesthetic in everyday situations. My proposal constitutes a way to explore aesthetic experiences from an enactive perspective that regards them as transformative events in which cognitive processes entrain and are entrained by changes taking place in the environment, the brain, and the body

Language and the World of Mythos: An Investigation on the Archeology of Culture

In this study, I investigate Ernst Cassirer’s analysis of the mythos (or the world of mythos) by focusing on his system of symbolic forms. I adopt his conception of mythos to reveal the influence of forms of mythical consciousness on the emergence of language. To that extend, I compare language paradigms of Cassirer with Chomsky. When I argue that Chomsky’s theory has difficulty to explain the cultural differences when we consider language in relation to mythos. For Chomsky, language phenomena are entirely intrinsical. I think that this claim is hiding behind the anticipation of causality. This anticipation includes the assumption that future will resemble the past. However, I believe that when we are face to the world of mythical consciousness to getting to root of the language, this anticipation falls us into error. It can lead to the misconception that what belongs to the world is a characteristic of our species. From this point of view, I approach to the analysis of language in its relation to mind-body problem. I propound that this problem has an ontological character. Therefore, I argue that, the ontological categories concerning the mythical world would leads us to delusions. Because the world of the appearences mythical world has a phenomenological character. I deal with this problem here in order to make the following basic claim: The mythical expression function continues influencing to our theoretical consciousness occasionally. We experience it most clearly in the physiognomical expression of a sensation. How is this possible? The attempt to find an answer to this question is always drives us to the homunculus error. I’m implying that this error is based on the expectation of causality. Thus I turn again the idea that an evolutionary perspective in such an expectation cannot grasp mythical consciousness correctly. At the end of this work I propose a teleological perspective and I’m explaining it

Enacting the aesthetic: A model for raw cognitive dynamics

One challenge faced by aesthetics is the development of an account able to trace out the continuities and discontinuities between general experience and aesthetic experiences. Regarding this issue, in this paper, I present an enactive model of some raw cognitive dynamics that might drive the progressive emergence of aesthetic experiences from the stream of general experience. The framework is based on specific aspects of John Dewey’s pragmatist philosophy and embodied aesthetic theories, while also taking into account research in ecological psychology, cognitive sciences, and dynamic systems theory. The model focuses on dynamically relevant nodes at the pre-reflective and the reflective side of experience that would work as nested rhythmic constraints at different cognitive timescales with the potential to shunt experiences toward the aesthetic in everyday situations. My proposal constitutes a way to explore aesthetic experiences from an enactive perspective that regards them as transformative events in which cognitive processes entrain and are entrained by changes taking place in the environment, the brain, and the body

Impasse-driven problem solving: the multidimensional nature of feeling stuck

This study reports findings across four preregistered experiments (total N = 856) that establish the multidimensional nature of impasse and resolve two paradoxes implicit in the problem-solving literature: how a state of impasse can be at once necessary to solve a problem with insight and yet also have appear to have a catastrophic effect on solution rates, and why individuals such as problem-solving and gaming enthusiasts seem to seek out this apparently aversive state. We introduce a new way of measuring impasse based on qualitative reports and subsequently confirmed through quantitative analysis that exploits two aspects of impasse: its dynamic and unstable nature (it can be resolved or unresolved) and its multidimensionality in terms of feelings of cognitive speediness, motivation, and affect. The feeling of being stuck varies resolved and unresolved impasse in terms of feelings of speediness and positive affect, but not motivation, which remains constant. We demonstrate that the feeling of insight can be reliably elicited by experiencing and resolving impasse but also in the absence of impasse, which suggests that there is more than one path to an insight experience. This adds depths to current proposals of the cognitive mechanisms underlying both insight problem-solving and impasse. Our findings are robust across a range of problem types. The novel conception of impasse in this paper as dynamic and multidimensional has implications for theories of insight problem solving, and also wider implications for understanding how impasse can be resolved across different domains such as education and design