Embodied Mind – Ensocialled Body: Navigating Bodily and Social Processes within Accounts of Human Cognitive Agency

Abstract

There is a prevalent tension within recent cognitive scientific accounts of human selfhood in that either bodily processes or social processes are explanatorily favored at the expense of the other. This tension is elucidated by the body-social problem (Kyselo, 2014) and at its heart is ambiguity regarding the body’s role within embodied cognitive science. Drawing on a range of phenomenological and empirical insights, I propose that we can avoid the problem by embracing the concept of an ensocialled body, in which all organic bodily processes are simultaneously social processes from the perspective of human cognitive agency.

Keywords

• selfhood
• cognitive science
• embodiment
• ensocialment
• Body-Social problem