Neorealism : unifying cognition and environment

• Author(s): Tonneau, François
• Date: 2013
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/24851
• Origin: RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho
• Subject(s): Neorealism; Embodied cognition; Direct realism; Ecology; Unifying psychology; Theory of psychology
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

APA Proofs Recent trends in psychology have revealed increasing discontent toward representational explanations of behavior. However, whether these trends have the conceptual resources to address the full range of cognitive phenomena remains unclear. Here, I defend neorealism (Holt, 1914) as the missing philosophical link between radically embodied cognitive science and a more encompassing psychology. Neorealism identifies cognitive contents, however subjective or unreal in appearance, with portions or cross sections of the objective environment. These portions are extended in time and they sustain causal and historical relations to current behavior. I sketch how neorealist concepts can help psychologists to address phenomena such as dreams and imagery in fully environmental terms.