Research

My research has so far focussed on the themes of embodiment and enactivism (including affordance theory). Specifically I have been arguing for what I call "Proper Embodiment" which is the idea that the details of the body matter to cognition and consciousness in a way that was not previously accepted in cognitive science. I have argued for this from the perspective of the importance of affect and interoception and from the perspective of the details of our particular implementation. My PhD dissertation (supervised by Andy Clark and submitted in 2011) sets this thesis out in detail, while many of the papers below sketch out aspects of the position:

PhD Thesis

Proper Embodiment: The Role of the Body in Affect and Cognition

Andy Clark and His Critics

Matteo Colombo, Liz Irvine (both also former Andy Clark supervisees) and I recently edited a book centred on Andy Clark's work with a response by him to the chapters within. You can see the contents and read the foreword by Daniel Dennett and the introduction by Matteo, Liz and I here. You can buy the book on Amazon or read it for free through Oxford Scholarship Online if your institution gives you access.

Colombo, M., Irvine, E., & Stapleton, M. (Eds.). (2019). Andy Clark and His Critics. OUP USA.

Selected Papers

Stapleton, M. (forthcoming) Enacting Education. Phenom Cogn Sci. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-020-09672-4
Stapleton M. (2021) Micro-phenomenological Measures and Mechanisms. Constructivist Foundations 16(2): 234–236. https://constructivist.info/16/2/234
Colombo, M. Irvine, E. and Stapleton, M. (2019) Introduction to Andy Clark and his Critics. In Colombo, M., Irvine, E., & Stapleton, M. (Eds.). (2019). Andy Clark and His Critics. OUP USA. (Oxford Scholarship Online).
Stapleton, M. (2016) Leaky Levels and the Case for Proper Embodiment. In Etzelmüller, G & Tewes, C. (Eds.), Embodiment in Evolution and Culture. Tuebingen: Mohr Siebeck.
Stapleton, M. (2016) Enactivism Embraces Ecological Psychology. Constructivist Foundations 11 (2), 325-327.
Stapleton, M. and Froese, T. (2016). The Enactive Philosophy of Embodiment: From Biological Foundations of Agency to the Phenomenology of Subjectivity. In Murillo, J. I., Garc’a-Valdecasas, M., & Barrett, N. F. (Eds.), Biology and Subjectivity: Philosophical Contributions to Non-reductive Neuroscience. 113-129. Berlin: Springer.
Costantini, M. & Stapleton, M. (2016). How the Body Narrows the Interaction with the Environment. In Y.Coello & M. H. Fischer (Eds.), Foundations of Embodied Cognition. East Sussex, UK: Psychology Press, Routledge.
Stapleton, M. (2013). Steps to a Properly Embodied Cognitive Science. Cognitive Systems Research. 22:1-11.
Stapleton, M. (2012). Feeling the Strain: Predicting the Third Dimension of Core Affect. [Commentary on Lindquist et al. "The brain basis of emotion: A meta-analytic review"]. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 35(3) pp. 163-167.
Ward, D. and Stapleton, M. (2012). Es are good: Cognition as Enacted, Embodied, Embedded, Affective and Extended. In Paglieri, F. [Ed.] Consciousness in Interaction: The Role of the Natural and Social Environment in Shaping Consciousness (pp. 89-104). John Benjamins.
Thompson, E. and Stapleton, M. (2009). Making Sense of Sense-Making: Reflections on Enactive and Extended Mind Theories. Topoi. 28:23-30.

Selected Talks

"Enacting Education: Transformational learning, Ritual and Enactivism". Royal Institute of Philosophy seminar series, University of Exeter. April, 2019. Also given at the 'Pragmatism, Education, and Embodied Cognitive Science' conference, University of Edinburgh, July 2018, and the 'Enactivism: Theory and Performance' conference, University of Memphis, March 2018.
"Classical Chinese Philosophy and Cognitive Science". Edinburgh University Women in Philosophy conference: Eastern Philosophy. April, 2019.
"The Heart of Self-Awareness". Philosophy, Psychology and Informatics Group (PPIG), University of Edinburgh, February 2017. Also given at 'Interoception, Emotion, and Embodiment' workshop in December 2016, and the 'Max Planck instute for Biological Cybernetics research meeting' in November 2016. A very short version of this talk was given to the ENSO seminar group in September 2016 (talk starts at about 4mins 50 secs). The content in this talk can be cited as follows:

Stapleton, M. (2016). The Heart of Self-Awareness [video file]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQDIC767264

"Interoception and the Anorexia Anxiety". European Society for Philosophy and Psychology, University of Tartu, July 2015. Also given at the 'Alternative Models of the Mind: Spindel Conference', University of Memphis, 2014.
"Aesthetic Affordances, Affect, and Architecture" (With Joerg Fingerhut). Situating and Emoting the Embodied Mind conference. Freie Universität Berlin, December 2013.
"Extending Interoception". University of Lund Philosophy Society. October 2013.
"Internal Embodiment and Group Agency". Collective Agency in Natural and Artifical Cognitive Systems conference, University of Stuttgart, July 2013.
"From Neural Coding to Nanofunctionalism". British Society for the Philosophy of Science (BSPS) conference, University of Stirling, July 2012.
"Internal Embodiment and the Case for Proper Embodiment". Minds, Bodies, and Problems conference, Bilkent University, June 2012.
"Towards Integrating Emotion into Accounts of Cognition". European Society for Philosophy and Psychology, CEU Budapest, August 2009.
"Phenomenology and Dynamics". Phenomenology and Philosophy of Mind Postgraduate Conference, University of Durham, 2008.
"Three worries about Embodiment or Envatment: A Response to Cosmelli and Thompson". ESPRA 2: Subjectivity and the Body conference, University of Copenhagen, Centre for Subjectivity Research, 2008.

Published research

Copies of my research papers can be found on my Academia site, my ResearchGate page, and through my Google Scholar Citations profile.