Tom Froese

I wrote a historical analysis for the Systems Research and Behavioral Science special issue on the life and work of Francisco Varela. The final article is now available online.

From Second-order Cybernetics to Enactive Cognitive Science: Varela’s Turn From Epistemology to Phenomenology

Varela is well known in the systems sciences for his work on second-order cybernetics, biology of cognition and especially autopoietic theory. His concern during this period was to find an appropriate epistemological foundation for the self-reference inherent in life and mind. In his later years, Varela began to develop the so-called ‘enactive’ approach to cognitive science, which sets itself apart from other sciences by promoting a careful consideration of concrete experiential insights. His final efforts were thus dedicated to finding a pragmatic phenomenological foundation for life and mind. It is argued that Varela’s experiential turn—from epistemology to phenomenology—can be seen as a natural progression that builds on many ideas that were already implicit in second-order cybernetics and biology of cognition. It is also suggested that the rigorous study of conscious experience may enable us to refine our theories and systemic concepts of life, mind and sociality.

Note: This article can be seen as a continuation of my recent paper From Cybernetics to Second-order Cybernetics, which provides a more detailed analysis of the cybernetics movement. Also, for a more in-depth treatment of the early cybernetic influence on the biology of cognition, see the paper I wrote with John Stewart on Life after Ashby.

I’m very happy to announce that the theoretical core of my doctoral dissertation has now finally seen the light of day in a much improved form, namely in the latest issue of Pragmatics & Cognition.

The enactive approach: Theoretical sketches from cell to society

Tom Froese and Ezequiel A. Di Paolo

There is a small but growing community of researchers spanning a spectrum of disciplines which are united in rejecting the still dominant computationalist paradigm in favor of the enactive approach. The framework of this approach is centered on a core set of ideas, such as autonomy, sense-making, emergence, embodiment, and experience. These concepts are finding novel applications in a diverse range of areas. One hot topic has been the establishment of an enactive approach to social interaction. The main purpose of this paper is to serve as an advanced entry point into these recent developments. It accomplishes this task in a twofold manner: (i) it provides a succinct synthesis of the most important core ideas and arguments in the theoretical framework of the enactive approach, and (ii) it uses this synthesis to refine the current enactive approach to social interaction. A new operational definition of social interaction is proposed which not only emphasizes the cognitive agency of the individuals and the irreducibility of the interaction process itself, but also the need for jointly co-regulated action. It is suggested that this revised conception of ‘socio-cognitive interaction’ may provide the necessary middle ground from which to understand the confluence of biological and cultural values in personal action.

Click here to download the paper.

I have been thinking about how to best bring my various interests together into one coherent framework of research. My latest attempt has just been published as an article in Avant: The Journal of the Philosophical-Interdisciplinary Vanguard.

Breathing new life into cognitive science

Tom Froese

In this article I take an unusual starting point from which to argue for a unified cognitive science, namely a position defined by what is sometimes called the ‘life-mind continuity thesis’. Accordingly, rather than taking a widely accepted starting point for granted and using it in order to propose answers to some well defined questions, I must first establish that the idea of life-mind continuity can amount to a proper starting point at all. To begin with, I therefore assess the conceptual tools which are available to construct a theory of mind on this basis. By drawing on insights from a variety of disciplines, especially from a combination of existential phenomenology and organism-centered biology, I argue that mind can indeed be conceived as rooted in life, but only if we accept at the same time that social interaction plays a constitutive role for our cognitive capacities.

You can download the article as part of the second issue of Avant.

The second issue of the bilingual online journal Avant has just been released. It has some very nice content, including a section about my philosophical work.

Here is the list of contents of that section:

Wspólnie wydeptując ścieżkę / Laying down a path in common
Wprowadzenie……71
Introduction……75
Hume – cyber-Hume – Hume enaktywny. Wywiad z Tomem Froese…79
Hume – cyber-Hume – enactive Hume. Interview with Tom Froese…87
Tom Froese:
Tchnąć nowe życie w kognitywistykę……………………95
Breathing new life into cognitive science…………….113

Here is the PDF: Avant_02