Making enactivism even more pragmatic: The Jamesian legacy in Shaun Gallagher's enactivist approach to cognition
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RIVISTA INTERNAZIONALE DI FILOSOFIA E PSICOLOGIA ISSN 2039-4667; E-ISSN 2239-2629
DOI: 10.4453/rifp.2021.0002 Vol. 12 (2021), n. 1, pp. 16-30
RICERCHE
Making enactivism even more pragmatic: The Jamesian legacy
in Shaun Gallagher’s enactivist approach to cognition
Guido Baggio(α)
Ricevuto: 21 dicembre 2020; accettato: 31 marzo 2021
█ Abstract The article outlines some similarities between the perspectives adopted by Shaun Gallagher and
William James. In particular, assuming that the issue of representation in cognitive systems provides a val-
uable starting point and testing ground for verifying James’ possible contribution to enactivism, we argue
that there is a considerable degree of similarity between Gallagher’s and James’ non-representational mod-
els of direct perception. Furthermore, we propose that by combining James’s theory of time and spatial
perception with Gallagher’s Husserlian-inspired theory of retentional-protentional structure, we can
strengthen the theoretical assumptions of enactivism, integrating elements taken from phenomenology
and aspects of Jamesian pragmatics. Understood in this way, James’ enactive theory of action and percep-
tual causality provides a promising opportunity for an innovative and coherent enactivist research pro-
gram.
KEYWORDS: Enactivism; Pragmatism; 4E Cognition; William James; Shaun Gallagher
█ Riassunto Rendere l’enattivismo ancora più pragmatico: l’eredità jamesiana nell’approccio enattivista alla cogni-
zione di Shaun Gallagher – In questo lavoro si pongono in evidenza alcune somiglianze tra la prospettiva
enattivista di Shaun Gallagher e la psicologia di William James. In particolare, assumendo che il tema della
rappresentazione nei sistemi cognitivi fornisca un valido punto di partenza e un terreno di prova per veri-
ficare il possibile contributo di James all’enattivismo, ritengo che esista una notevole assonanza tra l’anti-
rappresentazionalismo di Gallagher e la teoria della percezione diretta di James. Sostengo inoltre che at-
traverso una combinazione della teoria del tempo e della percezione spaziale di James con la teoria di Gal-
lagher della struttura ritentivo-protensiva di ispirazione husserliana sia possibile rafforzare i presupposti
teorici dell’enattivismo, integrando elementi tratti dalla fenomenologia con aspetti pragmatisti. La teoria
jamesiana dell’azione e della causalità percettiva sembra fornire una promettente opportunità per un inno-
vativo programma di ricerca in ambito enattivista.
PAROLE CHIAVE: Enattivismo; Pragmatismo; 4E Cognition; William James; Shaun Gallagher
(α)
Dipartimento di Filosofia, Comunicazione, Spettacolo, Università degli Studi di Roma Tre, via Ostiense, 234-236 – 00146
Roma (I)
E-mail: guido.baggio@uniroma3.it ()
Creative Commons - Attribuzione - 4.0 Internazionale - © Guido Baggio 2021Making enactivism even more pragmatic 17
IN WHERE’S THE ACTION? The pragmatic turn in thinking process is only one of several remarkable
cognitive science Engel and colleagues witnessed to processes of embodied experience, whose main
a “pragmatic turn” in cognitive science, i.e., the principle is continuity. It is in the continuity of
shift from a representation-centered perspective experience that cognitive operations grow out of
to a paradigm that focuses on the understanding organic activities. Moreover, the conceptual tool
of cognition as “enactive”. The article formalized a of the organism-environment relationship helps to
change of perspective that had been taking place alleviate the tension between enactive, embodied,
in the cognitive sciences since the end of the twen- and extended cognition as it highlights the inter-
tieth century and which considered that pragma- twining of mind, body and world in action, and
tists were basically right about the nature of the emergence of “higher” cognitive functions
knowledge and experience. In general, the pragmat- from perceptual, motor and affective functions. 9
ic turn paradigm suggests that cognition is funda- In his analysis, Gallagher also took into considera-
mentally grounded in action, that is, «fundamen- tion the work of William James both in The inor-
tally action-bound, subserving the planning, selec- dinance of time (1998) and, more recently, in an
tion, anticipation, and performance of actions».1 article in which he examined James’ concept of the
The use of the term “pragmatic”, taken from the “warmth and intimacy” of bodily self-conscious-
action-oriented perspectives developed by Peirce, ness. In particular, the 1998 volume compares
James, Dewey, and Mead, aims to stress the conjec- James’ notion of time with Husserl’s, contending
ture that cognition is a form of practice, namely a that though both authors agree in attributing to
skillful activity that implies a continuous interac- consciousness a temporal structure, James’ account
tion with the natural and social world. of the specious present falls into a “cognitive para-
Despite the various versions of the pragmatic dox,” for it involves the idea that succession can on-
turn in the cognitive sciences,2 as a common back- ly be represented in momentary simultaneity. Hus-
ground many assume that cognition is action- serl, on the other hand, escapes the paradox thanks
oriented. Therefore, cognition should not be con- to his concept of intentionality. The body in social
sidered a producer of veridical representations but context (2012) examines James’ concept of the
rather as a capacity to generate structures of action. “warmth and intimacy” of bodily self-consciousness
In this respect, the pragmatic turn is reflected in related to recent attempts to reformulate bodily
enactivist theories of cognition.3 In particular, on a self-consciousness in strictly neural terms, and ar-
historical-theoretical level, pragmatist authors are gues that both James’ and neuroscience’s perspec-
seen as forerunners, at least in part, of enactivism. tives ignore the social aspects of the self and the
Peirce, James, Dewey, and Mead’s theories are, in role they play in accounting for bodily self-
fact, largely consistent with the enactivist argu- awareness and its various perturbations.
ments that cognition is a matter of dynamical regu- Gallagher focuses more on dissonances than on
lation between brain, body, and environment. In- similarities between his and James’ proposals. Ad-
deed, many authors agree that the roots of enactiv- mittedly, James did not pay much attention to the
ism lay not only in phenomenology but also in notion of “situation” and to the role that organism-
pragmatism.4 In fact, as for phenomenologically in- environment interaction plays in cognition com-
spired enactivism,5 a pragmatist non-reductionist pared to other pragmatists, such as Dewey and
approach to cognition allows not only the rethink- Mead.10 Nevertheless, my claim is that upon closer
ing of the meaning of mind and brain, but the very examination, there are many elements that testify to
concept of nature, not accepting a mechanistic def- a possible Jamesian legacy in Gallagher’s enactivism.
inition of nature as presupposed by science. Considering the possible synergies between James
Among the enactivists, Shaun Gallagher high- and Gallagher, I will argue, can provide an enriched
lighted on various occasions the contribution that conception of enactivist philosophy.
pragmatists and neo-pragmatists can make to In what follows, I outline some similarities in
cognitive science,6 maintaining that pragmatism their perspectives. In particular, assuming that the
supports an integrative approach to cognition issue of representation in cognitive systems provides
which strengthens the enactivist-extended model a valuable starting point and testing ground in order
on several points.7 In particular, by deepening to verify James’ valuable contribution to enactivism,
Dewey’s theory of organic circuit as well as his no- I argue that there is a considerable degree of similari-
tions of “situation” and “organism-environment”, ty between Gallagher’s and James’ non-repre-
he argues that they offer a way to elaborate a theo- sentational models of direct perception. To do so, I
ry of the extended mind based on enactivist prin- compare Gallagher’s Husserlian-inspired theory of
ciples. Accordingly, nature can only be understood intrinsic time and James’s theory of time and spatial
through the cognitive capacity we have to investi- perception. This theory is part of James’ psychologi-
gate it, namely through experiencing our transac- cal functionalism, which he summarized in the mas-
tions with it.8 This capacity calls into question a terpiece Principles of psychology (1890). In particular,
teleological perspective on the organic relation be- assuming an evolutionary, strongly anti-dualist, non-
tween organism and environment, in which the reductionist naturalism,11 James’s functionalism18 Baggio
claims continuity between action, perception, cogni- trol aspect can be considered as independent from
tion, arguing that perception and cognition are part the object or situation it represents. In other words,
of the more comprehensive motor process involved to think that anticipations emulated can be separat-
in action.12 I then maintain that James’ theory of ac- ed from perceptual and proprioceptive input involve
tion and causality might be considered a kind of a decoupled process.
forerunner of Gallagher’s enactivism. Moreover, I
maintain that James’ functionalist conception of To think that the anticipatory emulator in-
“space-relations” can contribute to further highlight volves a decoupled process is to think that such
the strict connection of relations and direct percep- anticipations can be detached from perceptual
tion, and to avoid any recourse to models of uncon- and proprioceptive input, which they clearly
scious inference in perception, thus contributing to cannot be.17
get a better enactivist account. In more general term,
my claim is that through a combination of Jamesian Now, if an emulation process does not work
non-representational functionalism and Husserlian- representationally in action, why should the same
inspired theory of retentional-protentional structure, process become representational when performed
it is possible to strengthen the theoretical assump- offline? The same is true with Rowlands’ PIAs and
tions of enactivism, integrating elements taken from his interpretation of decouplability as a form of
phenomenology with Jamesian pragmatic aspects. misrepresentation, according to which if something
is representational, it can misrepresent the object or
█ 1 Gallagher’s embodied non-representational situation from which is decoupled.18 More specifi-
model of action cally, PIAs are deeds, namely acts that have a pur-
pose for intentional action and that can have repre-
Among the seven background assumptions that sentational status. However, they are not represen-
characterize the enactivist approach, according to tational in exactly the same way that internal repre-
Gallagher, one is about the non-representational na- sentations are. They satisfy almost the same con-
ture of cognitive processes. straints of internal representations, namely «in-
formational, normativity, misrepresentation, de-
Cognitive processes acquire meaning in part by couplable, and combinatorial constraints», but not
their role in the context of action, rather than the explanatory constraint.19 In effect, deeds do not
through a representational mapping or repli- play a role in explaining (producing, guiding) be-
cated internal model of the world.13 havior because they are behavior.20 For Rowlands,
normativity, misrepresentation, and decouplability
This assumption correlates to Gallagher’s re- constraints are strictly intertwined. In particular,
jection of the need to resort to any form of repre- the decouplability condition is derivative upon the
sentationalism, even minimal, for any account of misrepresentation condition in the sense that it is
action. Chapter 5 of Enactivist Interventions is en- merely a way of stating that condition: when the
tirely dedicated to contending that representation agent misrepresents something, the PIA (or deed) is
plays no role in any aspect of the action as delibera- said to be decoupled. And for the same reason that
tion, planning, or expression of intentions, and that deeds satisfy the normativity constraint, having a
successful learning and action require neither prop- history that provides them with a function by which
ositional mental representations, nor semantically they are typed independently of the specific nature
interpretable brain representations.14 of their immediate environment (though not of their
In order to illustrate his argument, Gallagher environment in general), they should also satisfy
takes into account some models of minimal repre- «the relevant form of the decouplability».21 In other
sentations – including Rowlands’ pre-intentional words, deeds are decouplable because they can mis-
acts (PIAs) and Clark and Grush’s Minimal Robust represent what ought to be done.22
Representation (MRR). He points out that they face According to Gallagher, however, it is not clear
the same problematic issue, namely: once we attrib- that decouplability can be reduced to misrepresen-
ute to minimal representations the decouplability tation. In fact, assuming that misrepresentation is
constraint according to which we can take them “of- a way of being decoupled from action does not
fline” and imagine or remember an action or context, imply that all forms of decoupling are misrepre-
we are saying nothing about representation in ac- sentations. For example, someone may imagine an
tion.15 In claiming that the MRR, for instance, is de- action that he should not do; if that involves a de-
coupleable, Clark and Grush characterize it as an in- coupled “directive” representation (as someone
ner state which is independent of constant physical like Millikan would say), this does not mean that
linkages with the extra-neural states and which is in- he would be misrepresenting anything.23
volved in the neural circuitry used for predictive In more general terms, Gallagher maintains
purposes in a forward emulator.16 However, accord- that representationalism is just «a scientifically
ing to Gallagher, it is difficult to understand how a abstract way» to think about the action process
constituent part of the action, such as the motor con- and that representation is just «a concept underMaking enactivism even more pragmatic 19
which one still needs all the explanation to be tells us everything important. If the landscape in
made».24 So that whatever can be regarded as rep- front of me affords me the opportunity to act,
resentation is the result of an interpretation. then the situation – that is, the system that in-
Moreover, it is not an interpretation made by the cludes both neural and extra-neural elements – is
acting agent but rather by the scientist making an «already organized for action and there seems no
abstraction from the neural, motor systems. In the reason to reduplicate it representationally».28
case of MRR, for instance, we have what James al- Part of what explains the organism-
ready indicated as the psychologist’s fallacy,25 ac- environment attunement involves a temporal/
cording to which the representationalist confuses dynamic retentional-protentional structure, name-
her own standpoint with that of the (neural, mo- ly a coherent trajectory that is held together in the
tor) systems about which she is making her report, perception-action structure through an online
even though the brain, the agent, and the scientific pragmatic retentional maintenance of the relevant
observer are three perspectives that are not entire- aspects of the experienced environment, a proten-
ly congruent in their relations with the environ- tional aspect as an implicit feature of my end-
ment, and in their causal mechanisms. The rejec- oriented immediate interaction with the environ-
tion of representationalism may also involve a ment, and the evolving movements forming the
pragmatic argument, according to which, given dynamic state of the system. In other words, if
the great confusion surrounding the notion of rep- perception and cognition are enactive, then their
resentation, it turns out to be much easier to ex- intrinsic temporal structure should be such as to
plain action in non-representationalist terms. And permit this enactive character.29
if the phenomenon of action can be explained in
non-representationalist terms, the concept of rep- █ 2 Husserlian-inspired “intrinsic temporality”
resentations is then at best redundant.26
Gallagher, hence, proposes to replace representa- The notion of the retentional-protentional
tion by «a form of dynamical perception/affor- structure, also referred to as “intrinsic temporali-
dance-based online intelligence»27 embedded in an ty”,30 comes to Gallagher from the Husserlian con-
extended-body-environment system that generates cept of the “living present”,31 which denotes a
action through complex causal interactions. In par- form of ordering of experience without which
ticular, he maintains that the agent’s acquired skills nothing could be perceived, as well as «a timeless-
are retained not as representations but as disposi- ness of form in which time is constituted».32 Ac-
tional embodied responses to the solicitations of en- cordingly, Husserl distinguishes three momentary
vironmental situations. Our subpersonal processes aspects of an enduring act of consciousness:33 pri-
are hence shaped by the relevant aspects of the envi- mal impression that allows for the consciousness of
ronment in which our intentional life is keyed, so the an object simultaneous with the current phase of
“frame problem” is, in this sense, solved by intuitive consciousness; retention that retains previous
and emotionally informed responses rather than by a phases of consciousness and their intentional con-
network of representations. tent; protention that anticipates experience which
This perspective might also solve the difficul- is just about to happen.
ties related to Rowlands’ constraint of decoupla- As Husserl argues in his 1905 Lectures on the
bility as a form of misrepresentation. We can get Phenomenology of the Consciousness of Internal
things wrong on a non-representational affordance Time, the immediately experienced present is
model not because our representation of the world based on a primary impression, namely «some-
misrepresents it, but because the world itself is am- thing absolutely unmodified» and
biguous in the light of the particular perspectives
from which it appears to us. Gallagher uses the ex- over against which there stands the continuum
ample of climbing a mountain. A mountain can ap- of modifications in primary memorial con-
pear to me climbable from a particular perspective sciousness [i.e., retention].34
and distance, whereas, once I get closer to it, I dis-
cover that it is not climbable. From a representa- The primary impression is then the primal
tionalist view I explain that my original representa- source of all further consciousness that passes over
tion of the mountain was wrong. On the contrary, into retention and extends. It forms the “rough”
on the embodied non-representationalist view, I now35 within which a “finer” now is distinguished
discover that from a different perspective, i.e., a dif- from degrees of the immediate past and future
ference in the details of how I am coupled to the surrounding it as fringes, circumstances fused to
environment, I am able to more finely attune to the contents of perception.36 As he puts it:
climbing possibilities relative to my embodied
skills. This does not mean that a representational- if we relate the use of the word “perception” to
ist cannot provide a representational description the differences in givenness with which temporal
of the same situation, but that it is redundant objects present themselves, the antithesis of per-
since the non-representational dynamical account ception is the primary memory and the primary20 Baggio
expectation (retention and protention) that occur begins as the very basic activity involved in the ini-
here; in which case, perception and nonpercep- tial moment of any particular action, and contin-
tion continuously blend into one another. […] if ues as the ongoing point of action actuality».43
we call perception the act in which all “origin” lies, The protention-primal enaction-retention
the act that constitutes originally, then primary model applies to action and non-conscious motor
memory is perception. For only in primary processes, as well as to consciousness. It relates to
memory do we see what is past, only in it does the non-conscious motor processes of the retentional
past become constituted – and constituted pre- aspect of body schema and the anticipatory as-
sentatively, not re-presentatively.37 pects of motor control.44 Based on the retentional-
protentional structure, the organism is capable of
Gallagher notes, however, that in the Bernauer organizing its behavior temporally, keeping track
Manuskripte (1917-1918), Husserl changed his of how previous movements have brought it to its
mind about primal impression. If in 1905 he con- current state. More specifically, a conscious sense
sidered the primary impression as a starting point of movement is generated45 through the action
to define retention and protention, in the Bernau- which has a unity in time recognised and integrat-
er Manuskripte he considers it as ed into the intentional structure of the action it-
self. This unity is composed of the retentive track-
the point of intersection between the reten- ing of the details of the body and environment ex-
tional and protentional tendencies that make perienced by the subject as part of the structure of
up living present.38 the action in progress and of the protensional an-
ticipation that indicates the direction of the action
More specifically, as highlighted by Gallagher, towards its completion.46 Thence, a ubiquitous in-
the point of departure for Husserl’s analysis in the trinsic temporality characterizes human experi-
Bernauer Manuskripte, rather than the primal im- ence and action. Temporal order is the product of
pression is the current protensional anticipation a retentive function that orders information ac-
that has yet to be realized. The primal impression cording to a pragmatic scheme, and allows the
is conceived as the fulfillment of a previous pro- emergence of action and our consciousness of ac-
tention so that the present now consists of a pro- tion thanks to the concurrent participation of dis-
tentional completion. Gallagher also notes that tributed regions of the brain and their sensorimo-
occasionally Husserl does not even mention the tor incorporations.
primary impression.39 He furthermore points that The integration of different neuronal correla-
although, on the one hand, the notion of an isolat- tions involves a process of integration of different
ed primal impression seems to be merely an ab- scales of duration directly relevant to the pro-
straction, on the other hand, there must be some- tensional processes of intrinsic temporality. Gal-
thing like a limit or division between the aspects of lagher takes up Varela’s distinction to identify three
retention and protention that characterize our ex- relevant timescales: (1) The elementary timescale,
perience, though they need to be differentiated. measured in milliseconds, which corresponds to neu-
Analyzing the Bernauer Manuskripte, we find rophysiological processing; (2) The integration time-
that the originality of the “present now” is repro- scale, measured in seconds, which corresponds ap-
grammed in a more complex form than in the proximately to the living present; (3) The narrative
1905 lectures, by the consideration that the “pre- timescale, measured in durations greater than the
sent now” is such only under the “past nows”.40 living present, which corresponds to the narrative
Husserl focuses here on the modifying continuum identity of the self and involves semantic and episod-
created by the continuous crossing of retentions ic memory.47
and protentions. This is also evident in his reiter- Within the elementary timescale, the intersenso-
ated use of terms like continuum and interrelation ry integration across sense modalities with different
/intertwining [Verflechtung].41 The word Verflech- processing times takes place. At the integration scale
tung, in particular, plays a key role for the dynamic these subpersonal processes are integrated through
and genetic perspective in which retentions and the mechanism of synchronization of mutual con-
protentions exert their influence on the “present nections between separate brain regions, organized
now” and on each other, and from which the tem- in dynamic networks. Phenomenologically, the inte-
poral course is constituted as a process dominated gration scale corresponds to the “living present”, the
by passive tendencies and anticipations.42 level of a fully constituted cognitive functioning; at
Gallagher, however, prefers to replace Hus- the motor level it corresponds to a basic action.48
serl’s notion of “primal impression”, that he iden-
tifies with “primal presentation”, with the term █ 3 The perception of time and space. James’s
“primal enaction” to point that consciousness is anti-representationalism between Husserl and
not a passive impression even in its seemingly Gallagher
most basic aspect. In particular, with “primal en-
action” Gallagher means to signify «a process that Now, Gallagher’s Husserlian-inspired conceptMaking enactivism even more pragmatic 21
of retentional-protentional structure is fully con- «without the presence of intentions aimed at the
sistent with James’ analysis of internal perception temporal context».55 And the temporal context is
of time developed in chapter XV of Principles of the “living present”, in which what James called
psychology (1890) and perception of space exten- the “stream of consciousness” is given. Although
sivity developed in chapter XX.49 To better under- James’s concept is not explicitly called into ques-
stand this affinity, it is useful to look at the dis- tion, it does run through Husserl’s following
tinction that James makes in his Principles be- words:
tween perceptions and concepts as, respectively,
referring to sensations and images as far as simple the life of consciousness flows continuously
objects are concerned. While “concept” is a syno- and does not merely piece itself together link
nym of all that is mediated, the term “perception” by link into a chain. Rather, everything new re-
stands for what is immediate or simply perceived, acts on the old; the forward-directed intention
namely for sensation, feeling and intuition and ex- belonging to the old is fulfilled and determined
pressions such as sensory experience. Sensations in this way, and that gives a definite coloring to
are continuous, while concepts are discreet as re- the reproduction.56
gards their meaning.
Almost twenty years later, in Some problems of Drawing all this back to Gallagher, we may see
philosophy James still contends that the characters in his structure of action composed of the reten-
of perceptual stream are «duration, intensity, tive tracking of body and environment’s features a
complexity or simplicity, interestingness, exciting- sort of “perspective projection” of the past ele-
ness, pleasantness or their opponents».50 Back to ments upon the perception-action structure.57
the Principles, the experience of time and space is This structure involved the perception of succes-
already given in the unity of perceptual process, sion as part of body-schematic processes in which
within which attention discriminates the interre- the current motor state is charged with a reten-
lated parts. This means that conscious perceptions tional component that dynamically organizes sen-
are supposed to respond to changes in the brain sory-motor feedback.58
stimulated by environmental forces are supposed However, following James, it is not possible to
to respond to the changes of the brain awakened solve the “mystery” of time cognition only relying
by outer forces. The original experience of space on how a succession of external changes affects the
and time is always of something already given as a brain. This reductionist view, in fact, still stands on
unity, within which attention afterwards discrimi- the doorstep of cognition. One can certainly de-
nates the parts in relation to each other.51 scribe the duration in neural terms as «a cumula-
We therefore have a direct acquaintance with tion of brain-processes overlapping each other, of
the world around us, our process of knowing is which the fainter ones are dying phases of processes
rooted in the world, and we feel a native sensory which but shortly previous were active in a maximal
intimacy with it – against any intellectualistic at- degree», so that together with events’ duration
tempt to introduce radical distinctions – like ab- form our intuition of the specious present with its
stractions and representations. In other words, the content.59 Nonetheless, it cannot be inferred from
first kind of knowledge we experience is the direct this description that the intuition of the specious
presentation of things to our perception, an experi- present is the result of brain processes alone, it can
ence that we have personally, and that is the only merely state «the most elemental form of the psy-
knowledge we can have of the world and its rela- cho-physical conjunction».60
tions. Sensations are rich enough to be organized Consistent with this idea is Gallagher’s claim
to form an orderly world. The immediate sense of that dynamic temporal integration does not neces-
time is thus what allows us to have the sense of sarily preserve an objective linear sequence reflect-
projection and retrospection in the continuity of ing neural events. The processes that define the
time: it is a flow of time related to our feeling of scale of integration correspond more to the living
some concrete form of changing process – «an present, which indicates, in a way «very similar to
outward or inward sensible series, or a process of James’s notion of the specious present», a time
attention or volition».52 span that integrates some ongoing indeterminate
This flow of time is what James calls the spe- elemental processes.61 In the specious present, con-
cious present, namely the experience of a duration tents are in constant flux, so that an event directly
block as a synthetic datum composed of a «vague- perceived as immediately past and the same event
ly vanishing backward and forward fringe».53 On remembered at a later moment are not the same
this point, Husserl agrees with James’ idea of the psychic fact. Although it depends upon cognitive
practically cognized present as not like a “knife- functions, the specious present does not have to
edge”, but rather like a “saddle-back” that has a represent succession simultaneously. Perception
certain breadth on which we sit perched, and from depends on the persistence of sensations, however,
which we look in two directions into time.54 He there is the possibility to perceive a succession of
argues that a duration cannot even be posited events in a duration that is not necessarily cogni-22 Baggio
tively paradoxical for it does not require a duration- relations is strictly connected to James’ idea of di-
less act of consciousness. This process might be bet- rect perception, that is, the continuity existing be-
ter explained referring to James’s distinction be- tween our psychological functions and our deal-
tween sciousness and con-sciousness.62 ings with the natural and social environment. This
Sciousness is what we perceive directly through continuity is at the roots of the anticipatory mech-
the physiological adjustments as well as the sense- anisms in the sensory-motor systems.72
consciousness of our present body. Thus, each We can paraphrase Gallagher saying that nei-
part of the perceived succession can be regarded as ther space-relations nor relata are discrete or de-
a bit of sciousness (or immediate knowledge), couplable in the body-schematic processes.
which as part of the anticipatory process of the
next “bits of sciousness” is accompanied by a cer- █ 4 Action and causality. James’ non-reductionist
tain emotional feeling.63 The vague aspect of this enactivism
duration is difficult to reproduce in conceptual
terms. On this point, again, Husserl is very close to Moving a step further, Gallagher’s enactivist
James in arguing that the progressing retention in non-representational model, according to which
a living fading away cannot be modalized.64 Per- «subpersonal body-schematic processes operate on
ception is also determined by the anticipatory in- the same dynamical model reflected in experi-
tentions which are concordantly harmonizing and ence»73 seems to be in line with James’ idea that
sense-giving.65 Accordingly, protention is an antic- our relations to the world are sensibly felt. Our feel-
ipatory meaning to be interpreted «as an intentio ings, for James, are our way of grasping reality, and
directed into the future», whether it is a projec- sensations and perceptions are our bonds with con-
tion of an ego or an egoless tendency toward what crete reality, they are what put us directly in contact
is arriving from the future.66 with the world. Our consciousness is to a certain
Now, if according to James the perception of extent coincidental with perception, that is, with
time’s flow depends on our sciousness of a chang- «what we are paying attention to and all the fringes
ing process, what about our perception of moving we sensibly feel and mnemonically imagine around
body? Analogous to time’s flow, a body movement us».74 In other words, the raw materials of the reali-
is a change, a process, and our first temporal and ty, though not available to be reconstructed
spatial acquaintances are synthetic.67 In chapter through inner representations and logical infer-
XX of the Principles, James describes spatial exten- ences, are affectively connected to our spatial rela-
sivity as a sensational element given together with tionship with our natural and social world.75 There
our actual experience. In this perspective, he aims is no original internal division between perceptual
to offer an exhaustive description of original space and nonperceptual experiences. Rather, in its pass-
sensations in sensationalistic terms. His idea that ing, the immediate experience is «something to act
when we change the direction of attention there on, at its own movement».76
are certain quasi-motor sensations in our head In this perspective, action turns out to be a core
that seem to involve three dimensions68 may be issue in James’ Essays in radical empiricism.77
echoed by Gallagher’s claim that reality out there Against the inferentialist perspective, in The experi-
is ambiguous in the light of the particular perspec- ence of activity, James aims at tracing the original
tives from which it appears to us. Related to this meaning of activity back to our concrete experience
idea is James’ description of real space, an interest- of activity. More specifically, he focuses on complex
ing topic that would contribute to enactivism. In activity-situations arguing that part of the activity
particular, for James, an extensive quality charac- already has a defined direction, it comes with a de-
terizes sensations in the shape of a primitive, sire and a sense of goal, and it is complicated by dif-
vague, undetermined, and unordered simple total ficulties that it overcomes or succumbs to, and
vastness.69 The problem of ordering our feelings in «with the efforts which the feeling of resistance so
space is in the first instance a problem of distance often provokes».78 It is clear that the matrix of our
and direction. This orientational conception, be- conception of activity is perceptual, and relies on
sides getting really close to enactivism, is strictly the experience of how an activity is concretely per-
related to the Jamesian category of space-relations. formed. For this reason, he argues that in the expe-
Unlike Helmholtz (1867), a forerunner of the rience of activity the percipi is the esse. There is a
contemporary Bayesian paradigm of active infer- complete activity in the agent’s original and first
ence, according to which the mind would interpret intention as well as in his feeling.79 Among the con-
and evaluate sensations through a sort of “uncon- sequences of James’ hypothesis of the perceptual
scious inference”, James maintains that spatial re- stream is a reduction of the nucleal self to a collec-
lations are facts of the same order with the facts tion of physiological minimal reflex activities and of
they relate and that except for relations of magni- the body as the center of the world experienced:
tude, all other spatial relations are pure sensational
objects.70 In other words, there is no unconscious The world experienced (otherwise called the
reasoning in perception;71 instead, the nature of “field of consciousness”) comes at all times withMaking enactivism even more pragmatic 23
our body as its center, center of vision, center of the real primary agents. This is the case, for in-
action, center of interest. Where the body is is stance, for actions underpinned by processes of
“here”; when the body acts is “now”; what the brain cells whose excitation activate in advance of
body touches is “this”; all other things are the visible performance of action, as shown by
“theres” and “thens” and “that’s”. These words Libet’s well-known experiments on free will.83 But
of emphasized position imply a systematization James’ aim is to clarify how the recognition of the
of things with reference to a focus of action and ‘real’ causal agent is based on assumptions that, for
interest which lies in the body; and the systema- the current state of science, are not supported by un-
tization is now so instinctive (was it ever not questionable scientific evidence. On the contrary,
so?) that no developed or active experience ex- they are based on assumptions that condition any
ists for us at all except in that ordered form. So interpretative choices.
far as “thoughts” and “feelings” can be active, What is the practical difference if I say that cer-
their activity terminates in the activity of the tain nerve cells are active in producing the activity,
body, and only through first arousing its activi- instead of naively saying that I act, or that action is
ties can they begin to change those of the rest of the result of a conflict between ideas? Commenting
the world. The body is the storm center, the on the physicalist perspective, according to which
origin of coordinates, the constant place of nerve cells are causal agents and the consequent mo-
stress in all that experience-train. Everything tor discharges are the action performed, James main-
circles round it, and is felt from its point of view. tains that activity as the overall result of this process
The word “I”, then, is primarily a noun of posi- is indifferent to the brain agent. There is no guaran-
tion, just like “this” and “here”. Activities at- tee that given the same causal agent, similar results
tached to “this” position have prerogative em- will be repeated in the future. Brain cells are part of
phasis, and, if functions have feelings, must be the causal process, but James contends that they
felt in a peculiar way. The word “my” designates cannot be considered as the exclusive causal agent:
the kind of emphasis. I see no inconsistency
whatever, in defending on the one hand “my” My mistakes, impotencies, perversions, mental
activities as unique and opposed to those of out- obstructions, and frustrations generally, are also
er nature, and on the other hand in affirming, results of the activity of cells.84
after introspection, that they consist in move-
ments in the head. The “my” of them is the em- James’ argument does not aim to delegitimize
phasis, the feeling of perspective-interest in the physicalist perspective; rather, he stresses that
which they are dyed.80 the continuity we perceive in our activity is not
easily demonstrated at the physiological level of
This long quote shows what may be called James’ analysis. Many causal sequences – neural, muscular,
embodied, embedded, and enacted theory of action and instrumental – that remain entirely unknown
and perceptual causality. According to James, causal- to perception should be taken into account.
ity is one of the forms in which the perceptual conti- On this issue, James anticipates Gallagher’s crit-
nuity of our experience is manifested. On the percep- icism of the interpretations of Libet’s experiments.
tual level, concrete causal relationships are «the way Libet shows that before conscious intention ap-
some fields of consciousness introduce other pears, voluntary acts are initiated by unconscious
fields»,81 namely the co-conscious transition.82 His cerebral processes and that motor action and the
perceptual view of causality does not deny the possi- sense of agency depend on neurological events
bility of perceptual errors that are usually made, for happening before our conscious awareness to de-
example, when we attribute a direct causal power to cide or to move.85 Free will would be the exercise of
certain things without considering all the more com- inhibition of action, taking place during the ap-
plex chains of causal succession. proximately 150 milliseconds of brain activity after
Just like Gallagher, James disputes direct causal we become aware of our decision and before we
linearity which, especially in living organisms, is very move.86 Gallagher argues that the problem of men-
difficult to verify. Therefore, it would be a fallacious tal causality, as stated by Libet, leads us to explana-
argument to infer from errors due to perceptual lo- tions that are elaborated in representational terms
calization that perceptions are entirely false. of beliefs and desires, i.e. in processes that are best
The meaning of causality goes back, according characterized in terms of a space of reasons.87
to James, to the original perceptual experience of a More specifically, Gallagher argues that the
personal activity-situation. In the construction of common understanding in theories that support an
activity, he argues, the primary agent is taken as the epiphenomenal perspective of free will can be
most real causal agent, the one responsible for the traced back to what we have learned about motor
action, but the problem is to identify what the most control of the body. In a very Jamesian mood, he
primary agents are. As mentioned, in actions per- then distinguishes two questions underlying this
formed by living organisms, chains of causal succes- common understanding but requiring two different
sion are complex, so it is quite difficult to identify answers. With respect to movement or locomotion,24 Baggio
the first question is how does our motor control the psychological continuity between sciousness
work? The second question is where shall we go? As and consciousness, aimed to preserve real continui-
Gallagher maintains, while the best answers to the ty between perception and consciousness in ac-
question of motor control indicate that most con- tion. He committed himself to show how percep-
trol processes happen at a «subpersonal, uncon- tions and concepts are intertwined in our ordinary
scious level in the elementary timescale»,88 the se- experiences and what risks are involved in exclud-
cond question concerns free will and requires a dif- ing the somatic-physiological component from
ferent answer. Any decision to move is already in- any understanding of activity. However, he also
fluenced by the agent’s initial conscious decision to strongly challenges the physicalist view for which
achieve an end in view – which in Gallagher’s ex- everything concerning action can be understood
ample is to catch a lizard for the lizard collection. In by referring to neural activation.92
this example, action is not well described in terms Both James and Gallagher focus on the problem
of making bodily movements, but rather as at- of explaining how we are dynamically coupled to
tempting to achieve an end. The latter spans over a the world. Their perspectives make it possible to
larger timeframe than the Libet’s experimental acknowledge consciousness and the nervous system
framework of milliseconds. In Libet’s setting, antic- as interacting phenomena and to maintain the
ipations are part of the online process of action, and complexity of their relationships with environment.
as such they register the trajectory of the action Thanks to their methodological pluralism, both
from present to future: James and Gallagher allow an integration of differ-
ent perspectives: physicalist, mentalist and phe-
I suggest that the temporal framework for the ex- nomenalist. James’ pluralistic methodological ap-
ercise of free will is, at a minimum, the temporal proach is updated in Gallagher’s postulate of the
framework that allows for the process to be in- embodied mind analyzable from both a first-person
formed by a specific type of consciousness. This perspective – through which the phenomenological
consciousness is not the sort described by the re- nature of the lived body is considered– and a third-
flective theory, according to which my reflective person perspective – through which the brain-
regard would be focused on how to move my body-environment unit is explained.
body in order to achieve a goal. I am not at all Furthermore, James’ description of “space-
thinking about how to move my body – I’m relations” offers to Gallagher’s perspective something
thinking about catching the lizard. My decision that can contribute to advance his enactivism. In
to catch the lizard is the result of a consciousness fact, highlighting the strict connection of relations
that is embedded or situated in the particular and direct perception, James maintains that a conti-
context defined by the present circumstance of nuity exists between our psychological functions and
encountering the lizard, and the fact that I have a our dealings with the natural and social environ-
lizard collection. This is an embedded or situated ment, and this continuity is at the roots of the antici-
reflection, neither introspective nor focused on patory mechanisms in the sensory-motor systems.
my body. It is a first-person reflective conscious- Going the other way, what we find in contemporary
ness that is embedded in a pragmatically or so- enactivism that is missing in James (at least as a
cially contextualized situation.89 point of emphasis) is social or intersubjective inter-
action – something that Dewey and Mead does offer,
Gallagher’s explanation of causal action per- and what Gallagher focuses on in his works.
fectly fits with the aspects of the Jamesian view of
activity we have stressed. For James, the very na- █ Notes
ture of consciousness is impulsive and, in a non-
representational fashion, action is «the natural 1
Cf. B. VON ECKARDT, What is cognitive science?; P.
immediate effect of feeling […]. It is so in reflex GODFREY-SMITH, Complexity and the function of mind
action, it is so in emotional expression, it is so in in nature; T. ROCKWELL, Neither brain nor ghost: A
voluntary life».90 nondualist alternative to the mind-brain identity theory;
M. JOHNSON, The meaning of the body: Aesthetics of
█ 5 Conclusions human understanding; M. JOHNSON, Embodied mind,
meaning, and reason: How our bodies give rise to under-
A combination of James’ psychology and enac- standing; R. MENARY, Cognitive integration: Mind and
tivist perspective to multi-level cognition contrib- cognition unbounded; S. GALLAGHER, Intersubjectivity
utew to strengthen the theoretical assumptions of in perception; S. GALLAGHER, Philosophical antecedents
to situated cognition; S. GALLAGHER, The body in social
enactivism. Both in his psychology and in his phi- context: Some qualifications on the “Warmth and Inti-
losophy of mind, James denied the ontological macy” of bodily self-consciousness; S. GALLAGHER, Prag-
mind-body dualism, accepting instead a «func- matic interventions into enactive and extended concep-
tional dualism of consciousness and content».91 tions of cognition; S. GALLAGHER, Enactivist interven-
His idea of the synthetic unity of time-space suc- tions: Rethinking the mind; A. CHEMERO, Radical em-
cession, which he could draw from his account of bodied cognitive science; A.K. ENGEL, Directive minds:Making enactivism even more pragmatic 25
11
How dynamics shapes cognition; J. SCHULKIN, P. Cf., among others, C.D. GREEN, Darwinian theory,
HEELAN, Action and cephalic expression: Hermeneutical functionalism, and the first American psychological revo-
pragmatism; J. SCHULKIN, Pragmatism and the search lution; R.M. CALCATERRA, William James’s naturalism
for coherence in neuroscience. within the common project of pragmatist philosophy; C.E.
2
A.K. ENGEL, A. MAYE, M. KURTHEN, P. KÖNIG, BUXTON, American functionalism, pp. 113-140.
12
Where’s the action? The pragmatic turn in cognitive sci- James’ functionalism was later developed by the rep-
ence, p. 206. The various versions of the pragmatic turn resentatives of the Chicago School of functionalism,
can be traced back to two main interpretative lines John Dewey, George Herbert Mead and James Angell
about cognition. A reductionist physicalist interpreta- (cf. J.R. SHOOK (ed.), The Chicago school of functional-
tion of the pragmatic turn based on neuroscientific and ism). It has to be noted that Jamesian-inspired func-
artificial intelligence studies. The most distinctive fea- tionalism differs from the functionalist theories devel-
ture of this interpretation is the findings in support of oped since the 1950s in the philosophy of mind.
the need for a «radical change in how we conceive of Though there are a number of differences among func-
the functional significance of neural activity patterns» tionalist theories, all focus on mental states, assuming
(ibid., p. 206). And a non-reductive naturalistic inter- that they are determined as such by the role they play in
pretation of the pragmatic turn that embeds action, the cognitive system of which they are part, and in par-
perception, affection, and cognition in a holistic view of ticular by their causal relations to sensory stimulations,
brain, body, and environment. For a recognition of the to each other, and to behavior (for an introduction to
first interpretation line cf. J. SCHULKIN (ed.), Action, the different versions of functionalism see J. HEIL, Phi-
perception and the brain; A. K. ENGEL, K. J. FRISTON, D. losophy of mind. A contemporary introduction, ch. 6.; J.
KRAGIC (eds.), The pragmatic turn. Toward action- LEVIN, Functionalism, in: E.N. ZALTA (ed.), The Stan-
oriented views in cognitive science. For the other perspec- ford encyclopedia of philosophy. For an overview about
tive cf. R. MADZIA, M. JUNG (eds.), Pragmatism and the debate on different versions of functionalism see
embodied cognitive science; R. MADZIA, M. SANTARELLI N.J. BLOCK, Functionalism; N.J. BLOCK, Troubles with
(eds.), Pragmatism, cognitive science and the sociality of functionalism). Among the different versions of func-
human conduct. tionalism, that which is somewhat comparable to Jame-
3
For an overview of the varieties of enactivism cf. D. sian-inspired functionalism is the one that can be called
WARD, D. SILVERMAN, M. VILLALOBOS, Introduction: Fodorian-inspired psychofunctionalism, according to
The varieties of enactivism. which mental states and processes are entities defined
4
Cf. M. JOHNSON, The meaning of the body: Aesthetics of by their role in a cognitive psychological theory to be
human understanding; E.A. DI PAOLO, M. ROHDE, H. postulated by a scientific explanation of human behav-
DE JAEGHER, Horizons for the enactive mind: Values, so- ior. But even if this theory has among its antecedents
cial interaction, and play; R. MENARY, Our glassy essence: the psychological behaviorism that emerged out of the
The fallible self in pragmatist thought; E.A. DI PAOLO, T. Chicago School of functionalism – John Watson, whose
BUHRMANN, X.E. BARANDIARAN, Sensorimotor life: An doctoral thesis supervisor was Angell, called his behav-
enactive proposal; S. GALLAGHER, Enactivist interven- iorism «the only consistent and logical functionalism»
tions: Rethinking the mind. (J. WATSON, Psychology as the behaviorist views it, p.
5
Cf. F.J. VARELA, E. THOMPSON, E. ROSCH, The embod- 166) –, the difference with James’ functionalism is pro-
ied mind: Cognitive science and human experience; E.A. found. Among the many distinctions, the most im-
DI PAOLO, Autopoiesis, adaptivity, teleology, agency; E. portant for the purpose of this article concerns the dif-
THOMPSON, Mind in life: Biology, phenomenology and ferent approaches to “representation”. Unlike Fodori-
the sciences of mind; S. GALLAGHER, D. ZAHAVI, The an-inspired functionalism, which treats states of mind
phenomenological mind. An introduction to philosophy of as mentalistic or semantic representations of reality (cf.
mind and cognitive science. J. FODOR, Representations. Philosophical essays on the
6
Cf. S. GALLAGHER, Enactivist interventions; S. GAL- foundations of cognitive science; K. STERELNY, The repre-
LAGHER, Pragmatic interventions into enactive and ex- sentational theory of mind: An introduction), James did
tended conceptions of cognition; S. GALLAGHER, The body not consider it relevant for experimental psychology to
in social context; S. GALLAGHER, The inordinance of investigate the question of the representational nature
time; S. GALLAGHER, K. MIYAHARA, Neo-pragmatism of the mind, as it was a vestige of a psychology that fo-
and enactive intentionality. cused on mental content rather than on psychophysio-
7
Cf. S. GALLAGHER, Enactivist interventions, p. 60. logical processes related to afferent sensory stimulation.
8 13
Cf. S. GALLAGHER, Philosophical antecedents to situat- S. GALLAGHER, Enactivist interventions, p. 6.
14
ed cognition. Cf. S. GALLAGHER, Are minimal representations still
9
Cf. S. GALLAGHER, Timing is not everything: The in- representations?.
15
trinsic temporality of action. On Dewey and enactivism S. GALLAGHER, Enactivist interventions, p. 91. Gal-
cf. also M. CRIPPEN, Dewey, enactivism, and greek lagher’s anti-representationalism is in line with the
thought; M. JOHNSON, Cognitive science and Dewey’s basic intuition of the different versions of enactivism,
theory of mind. according to which action and perception are united
10
This does not mean that he entirely underestimates without any representational mediation between them.
the social dimension. Just consider the role played by This stance is actually much debated both outside of
the “social self”, in the consciousness of Self (W. JAMES, and within enactivism. In particular, the debate con-
Principles of psychology, pp. 281-283) as well as his defi- cerns both the possibility of admitting a representa-
nition of “habit” as «the enormous fly-wheel of socie- tional nature of processes at the neural level, and the
ty» (ibid., p. 125), or the notion of “activity-situation” possibility of distinguishing between intention and
in The experience of activity (in W. JAMES, Essays in rad- mental representational ability. For instance, there are
ical empiricism, pp. 79-95). some authors who, while endorsing the basic intuition26 Baggio
of identity between action and perception, arguing that representations, according to which «misrepresenta-
this unity is empirically corroborated, stress that per- tion is best understood by embedding the theory of in-
ceptions do require some form of representational me- tentionality within a theory of function that allows us
diation (B. NANAY, Empirical problems with anti- to understand, more generally, what malfunction is»
representationalism; G. FERRETTI, M. ALAI, Enactivism, (R.G. MILLIKAN, Pushmi-Pullyu representations, p. 186).
23
representations and canonical neurons). Other authors, Cf. S. GALLAGHER, Re-presenting representation.
24
on the other hand, try to maintain the anti- S. GALLAGHER, Enactivist interventions, p. 106.
25
representationalist enactivist position by proposing to W. JAMES, Principles of psychology, p. 196.
26
distinguish intentionality, understood as a characteris- Cf. S. GALLAGHER, Enactivist interventions, p. 106.
27
tic of embodied organisms directed towards objects and Ibid., p. 87.
28
states of affairs, from representation understood as a Ibid., p. 98.
29
characteristic of mental states and their respective un- Cf. S. GALLAGHER, Action and interaction, p. 34.
30
derlying mechanisms (T. SCHLICHT, Does separating Ibid., pp. 25ff. Cf. also S. GALLAGHER, Timing is not
intentionality from mental representation imply radical everything: The intrinsic temporality of action.
31
enactivism?). There are also authors who dismiss the Cf. E. HUSSERL, On the phenomenology of the conscious-
issue of the representational nature of cognition by ness of internal time (1893-1917); E. HUSSERL, Die Bernau-
shifting the focus to predictive processing models of er Manuskripte uber das Zeitbewusstsein (1917-18); E.
cognition that, while maintaining a mechanistic per- HUSSERL, Analyses concerning passive and active synthesis.
32
spective of the brain, offer a new understanding of cog- E. HUSSERL, Analyses concerning passive and active
nition in terms of a hierarchical predictive processing synthesis, p. 486. The doctrine of time is perhaps Hus-
architecture (A. CLARK, Whatever next? Predictive serl’s most historically important research, but also the
brains, situated agents, and the future of cognitive science; most controversial, as pointed out by Wolfgang W.
K. FRISTON, The free-energy principle: A rough guide to Fuchs. In particular, according to Fuchs’ metaphysical
the brain?; J. HOHWY, The predictive mind). It should understanding of Husserl’s doctrine of time, which dif-
also be mentioned that the debate between representa- fers from Gallagher’s more psychologistic interpreta-
tionalists and anti-representationalists is often fuelled tion, in his phenomenological research on time, Husserl
by a basic confusion about what is meant by represen- actually contradicts the move he intended to make of
tation (cf. K. AIZAWA, The enactivist revolution). We this thought as in accord with the metaphysics of pres-
cannot deal with the various aspects of the debate here, ence, revealing the co-primordiality of presence and
yet it suffices to mention that the enactivists’ anti- absence within the ultimate strata of the constitutive
representationalist position is about the impossibility of process. See W.W. FUCHS, Phenomenology and the met-
admitting a representational nature of the neural pro- aphysics of presence. An essay in the philosophy of Ed-
cesses that stand between action and perception. mund Husserl, pp. 58-73.
16 33
MMR is an inner emulator circuit which permits the E. HUSSERL, On the phenomenology of the consciousness
identification «within the system specific states and/or of internal time (1893-1917), p. 40. Cf. S. GALLAGHER,
processes whose functional role is to act as de- Action and interaction, pp. 27-29.
34
coupleable surrogates for specifiable (usually extra- Ibid., p. 70.
35
neural) states of affairs» (A. CLARK, R. GRUSH, To- Ibid, p. 42.
36
wards a cognitive robotics, p. 8). Cf. ibid., p. 172. Fuchs pointed out that in primal im-
17
S. GALLAGHER, Enactivist interventions, p. 92. pression we grant that “now” as an epistemological pri-
18
Rowlands’ theory of deeds as representational (see M. ority, that is as the source of every consciousness of a
ROWLANDS, Body language; M. ROWLANDS, Represent- temporally enduring object. In other words, in primal
ing without representations) incorporates and synthesiz- impression the bodily presence of the object is given in
es, somewhat, Clark’s action-oriented representations bodily self-presence (cf. W.W. FUCHS, Phenomenology
(AORs) (cf. A. CLARK, Representational trajectories in and the metaphysics of presence, pp. 64-65).
37
connectionist learning; A. CLARK, Being there: Putting Ibid., pp. 42-43.
38
brain, body and world together again) and Dretske’s S. GALLAGHER, Action and interaction, p. 34.
39
Representational Theory (F. DRETSKE, Naturalizing the See E. HUSSERL, Die Bernauer Manuskripte uber das
mind). In particular, deeds are «things we do rather Zeitbewusstsein (1917-18), p. 8: «Each constituting full
than things that happen to us» (M. ROWLANDS, Repre- phase is the retention of a fulfilled protention, which is
senting without representations, p. 137). To better ex- the horizon boundary of an unfulfilled and for its part
plain what he means with “deeds”, Rowlands distin- continuously mediated protention».
40
guishes between intentional, sub-intentional, and pre- Ibid., pp. 11-15.
41
intentional acts. While sub-intentional acts are non- Ibid., pp. 6-8.
42
intentional movements of which we are not aware and See on this point also S. GALLAGHER, D. ZAHAVI,
which serve no purpose connected to action (e.g., Primal impression and enactive perception. Fuchs high-
movements of tongs or fingers), pre-intentional acts lights that Husserl contradicts himself, giving prece-
(PIAs) are deeds, namely acts that have a purpose for dence to primary impression over retention, and subse-
intentional action. In other words, deeds are «things quently pointing to retention as the living horizon of
we do precisely because we have general antecedent in- the now, so that the present and the past and the future
tentions we wish to satisfy» (ibidem). are considered as coprimordial (cf. W.W. FUCHS, Phe-
19
M. ROWLANDS, Representing without representations, nomenology and the metaphysics of presence, pp. 68-70).
p. 142. A critical discussion of this interpretation by Gallagher
20
Ibid., p. 140. and Zahavi can be found in C. HOERL, Husserl, the ab-
21
M. ROWLANDS, Body language, p. 166. solute flow, and temporal experience. Hoerl also argues
22
Rowlands follows Millikan’s theory of pushmi-pulliu for a representationalist reading of the structure ofYou can also read
