Presentations

* The language of the presentations is indicated above the video thumbnails. ** This list includes only presentations available online.*** This page is under construction

English

Naturalized language: The intertwining between action and verbal language in linguistic enactivism.

Linguistic Enactivism proposes an understanding of language as an interactive and creative social practice based on our history of habits and social interactions onto and phylogenetically. In this paradigm, actions are meaningful for agents (living organisms) due to their biological precariousness and their impetus for self-preservation and maintenance, by means of the dynamics of their couplings with the environment and interactions with others. To investigate verbal language, we commonly choose to study established regular structures that can be detached from the agents' experiences and actions. According to Linguistic Enactivism, linguistic creation and sedimentation processes, that is, the way people understand each other and act in the world - participatory sense-making - are the basis of symbolic meaning. In this presentation, I will suggest - based on improvisation practices and notions of cognitive archaeology - that (1) performance studies and the evolution of sign using can contribute to our understanding of verbal meaning practices, and (2) that action and meaning are inextricably intertwined.

English-Portuguese - simultaneous translation

Roundtable Improvisation and Linguistic Bodies

Research in improvisation and the enactivist theory of cognition can mutually benefit from a dialogue. The focus of this meeting has been the reflection on how enactivism and its central concepts can contribute to the reflection on improvisation. The improvisational practice can also contribute to the development of the linguistic enactivist dialectical theory, such as the dialectics between spontaneity and sedimentation, partial acts and social acts, regulatory and regulated acts, production and interpretation of significant actions, coordination and lack of coordination of actions and movements, complementary and conflicting acts , among others. In this dialogue we explore ways in which each field can contribute to the other.

Portuguese

Meaning En-action

In this roundtable I distinguish between the methodological and ontological commitments of sign-based semantics. The methodological one is the analysis of corpora and the ontological one is the postulate of mental content. By adopting a linguistic enactivist perspective I propose that the methodological aspect could be compatible with an enactivist perspective which rests on the notion of stable meaning in action. I present a conception of meaning as a four-level practice and argue that sign-based semantics doesn’t have to rely on mental content if it takes into account the conception of meaningful material engagement in cognitive archeology and its development into sign-using as an enactive capacity.

Portuguese

The relevance of the analysis of participatory sense-making processes in contexts of improvisation. The linguistic enactivist theory proposes an understanding of language as a series of habits that are sedimented over the course of life, both in terms of our organic constitutions and in terms of our social practices. Actions are significant for any living organisms due to our biological precariousness and impetus for preservation and inclusion in interaction dynamics, whether social beings or not. The meanings that actions have or acquire are related both to the context of identification and to the histories of organisms and the interactions between organisms and with non-living systems. To investigate language, we commonly choose to investigate specific regular structures already sedimented that can be detached from the agents' experiences and actions. However, from a linguistic enactivist perspective, dialectical aspects of our linguistic existence can and should be investigated in their creation and sedimentation processes. For this reason, I suggest that the identification of dialectical processes in contexts of non-verbal meaning creation and sedimentation, such as compositional situated improvisation in dance, can help the development of elements of the linguistic enactivist dialectical model, such as the dialectics between spontaneity and sedimentation, partial and social acts, regulatory and regulated acts, production and interpretation of meaningful actions, coordination and lack of coordination of actions and movements, complementary and conflicting acts, among others. In this presentation I talk about the first steps of this understanding of participatory sense-making processes in contexts of compositional improvisation situated in dance.

Portuguese

Thinking about gender relations from Linguistic Enactivism

In this round table, I present Derald Sue's theory about everyday oppressions suffered by disadvantaged groups and his types of microagressions for our contexts in academic philosophy. These are the first steps towards a more in-depth research involving the linguistic enactivist conception of human cognition and emotions in the context of feminist epistemologies.

English

Linguistic Enactivism: the theory and its scope

In this talk, I presented the main points of linguistic enativism and questioned how the theory can influence new developments on research about language. To do this, I resorted to a reflection on what an understanding of language needs to provide a complete description of an embodied language and contrasted this perspective with the linguistic enactivist proposal. Then I suggested some reasons for considering the viability of empirical investigations in situated composition in dance improvisation for investigations on the workings of language.

Portuguese

Linguistic Enactivism, philosophy of language and empirical research

Linguistic enactivism, as I call it, is a version of enactivism that develops a theory of linguistic bodies. This theory is explained in the book 'Linguistic Bodies: The continuity between Life and Language' (2018) MIT Press and synthesized in this review. My research aims to promote new developments in the philosophy of the language according to this paradigm, as well as to point to possible influences that this theory may have on empirical investigations of human cognition.

English

Dialectics on Linguistic Enactivism

The theory of Linguistic Bodies rests on a fundamental notion which cuts across the whole theory: the concept of dialectics. The three levels of embodiment interact dialectically (i.e: dialectic situations occur in the three levels of cognition and among them) and dialectical situations are also on each step of the model towards the realization of participatory sense-making, for each of those steps is the result of an interplay between tensions that logically anticipate them. I propose that the reader can identify three aspects under which one can understand dialectics: the methodological aspect, the ontological aspect and the very dialectical model and subsequently suggest that the ontological claim should be taken as an epistemological claim that is consistent with their view of concreteness as a constant goal of considering elements as embedded within the totality of their relations.

Portuguese

Enactivism and Improvisation

This collaborative research, coordinated by Profa. Ivani Santana - UFBA / CNPq and developed with other members of the Group MI - Women of Improvisation, involves researchers from philosophy, music, dance and audiovisual technologies, to explore new ways of investigating cognitive models. Research on artistic processes with technological mediation is a fertile ground for the development of theories of cognition, as they can benefit from artistic experiences and explorations. According to Linguistic Enactivism, a theory that I work with, the body and the environment it inhabits are constitutive of human cognition. Thus, performance, improvisation, movement and dance, activities that focus on the body and the environment, seem fundamental for this research.

Portuguese

Teorias radicais da cognição

As versões radicais de teorias contemporâneas da cognição, a saber, cognição corporificada e cognição enativa, abdicam das idéias de que cognição envolve conteúdo (e.g. Myin & Hutto, 2013) e de que a mente opera com eles (Chemero 2013). A teoria radical da cognição corporificada sustenta que a cognição é um sistema dinâmico, isto é, um sistema em que os elementos mudam no tempo, e que esse sistema se auto regula. Neste texto eu pretendo apresentar ambas as teorias, apontando para diferenças e pontos em comum entre elas e discutir o papel que sistemas dinâmicos ocupam nessas visões radicais. Para este fim, devo apresentar uma perspectiva influenciada por Wittgenstein defendendo que percepções ilusórias, que são o ponto central no problema do conteúdo das nossas percepções, apenas o são porque temos critérios de correção independentes. Esta perspectiva pretende recorrer à noção de cognição como um jogo dinâmico e auto-regulado, em que as regras se apresentam conforme o jogo: "as we go along" (PI 83), desde que possamos eleger pontos de referência para determinar o próximo passo.

Portuguese

Sobre os fundamentos filosóficos da memória episódica como consciência de eventos passados

A viagem no tempo mental (MTT) é um rótulo inovador em Filosofia. A noção foi estabelecida pelo psicólogo experimental e neurocientista cognitivo Endel Tulving na década de 1980 e refere-se à capacidade de estar ciente de eventos subjetivos passados e futuros. A visão de Tulving sobre memória e consciência fornece uma importante distinção conceitual fundada em dados observados experimentalmente. Nesse artigo, discuto (1) seu conceito de memória episódica como consciência, baseada na distinção de percepção e sensação de Peter Hacker, bem como em sua concepção de memória, e (2) se a memória pode ser tomada como uma percepção subjetiva do próprio corpo, que , portanto, desafia a concepção de memória como informação armazenada no cérebro e a ideia de que de alguma forma poderíamos perceber nossas memórias. O principal enigma é: se a consciência é um estado consciente que envolve a percepção verídica dos estados/ eventos internos ou externos presentes, como podemos conceber a consciência dos eventos passados e futuros? Esta discussão visa contribuir para a concepção de MTT de Tulving, esclarecendo os fundamentos conceituais sobre os quais podemos entender a memória.