Notion “Mental Content” in the Context of S. Hurley’s Enactivism

Abstract

The research objectives are as follows: to give an idea of Susan Hurley’s philosophy and to check whether the relevant philosophical problem of mental representation and mental content is non-contradictive. The article criticizes the traditional conception of consciousness, in which cognition is considered as an interface between perception and action, without taking into account interrelation of these processes. The problem of mental content is tackled; it is shown that normativity of non-conceptual mental content is weaker in comparison with conceptual one. Scientific originality of the study lies in the fact that the researcher introduces the name of the woman-philosopher S. Hurley, a figure of the English-language cognitive philosophy whose works are little known in Russia, into scientific use. The author clarifies the notion “mental content” and criticizes the modern cognitive theory. The research findings are as follows: correlation of non-conceptual mental content and action intention is revealed, the notion “mental content” is analysed in relation to pre-linguistic consciousness.

References

1. Bermúdez J., Arnon C. Nonconceptual Mental Content [Электронный ресурс] // The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2020 Edition). URL: https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2020/entries/content-nonconceptual/ (дата обращения: 30.10.2020).
2. Cleve J. van. Defining and defending nonconceptual contents // Philosophical Perspectives. 2012. № 26. P. 411-430.
3. Descombes V. The mind’s provisions, critique of cognitivism. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001. 309 p.
4. Hung T. On Susan Hurley’s Shared Circuits Model of Action Learning // NCCU Philosophical Journal. 2018. № 39. P. 37-70.
5. Hurley S. Consciousness in action. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998. 506 p.
6. Hurley S. Perception and action: Alternative views // Synthese. 2001. № 129. P. 3-40.
7. Hurley S. The importance of imitation // Perspectives on Imitation: From Neuroscience to Social Science. 2005. Vol. 1. P. 1-53.
8. Hurley S. The Varieties of Externalism // Menary R. The Extended Mind. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2010. P. 101-154.
9. Hutto D., Myin E. Evolving Enactivism. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2017. 360 p.
10. McGinn C. Mental Content. Cambridge: Blackwell, 1989. 226 p.
11. Tappolet Ch. Emotions, values and agency. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017. 245 p.
12. Tye M. Nonconceptual content, richness, and fineness of grain // Gendler T. M., Hawthorne J. Perceptual Experience. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. P. 504-530.

Author information

About this article

Publication history

• Received: October 12, 2020.
• Published: February 10, 2021.

Keywords

• восприятие
• действие
• содержание сознания
• энактивизм
• Сьюзан Херли
• perception
• action
• mental content
• enactivism
• Susan Hurley

Copyright

© 2021 The Author(s)
© 2021 Gramota Publishing, LLC

User license

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)