Consciousness in Interaction: The role of the natural and social context in shaping consciousness

424 Pages·2012·3.272 MB·English

by  Fabio Paglieri (Editor)

Consciousness in Interaction
Advances in Consciousness Research (AiCR)
Provides a forum for scholars from different scientific disciplines and fields of
knowledge who study consciousness in its multifaceted aspects. Thus the Series
includes (but is not limited to) the various areas of cognitive science, including
cognitive psychology, brain science, philosophy and linguistics. The orientation of
the series is toward developing new interdisciplinary and integrative approaches for
the investigation, description and theory of consciousness, as well as the practical
consequences of this research for the individual in society.
From 1999 the Series consists of two subseries that cover the most important types of
contributions to consciousness studies:
Series A: Theory and Method. Contributions to the development of theory and
method in the study of consciousness; Series B: Research in Progress. Experimental,
descriptive and clinical research in consciousness.
This book is a contribution to Series A.
For an overview of all books published in this series, please see
http://benjamins.com/catalog/aicr
Editor
Maxim I. Stamenov
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
Editorial Board
David J. Chalmers Steven Laureys
Australian National University University of Liège
Axel Cleeremans George Mandler
Université Libre de Bruxelles University of California at San Diego
Gordon G. Globus John R. Searle
University of California Irvine University of California at Berkeley
Christof Koch Petra Stoerig
California Institute of Technology Universität Düsseldorf
Stephen M. Kosslyn
Harvard University
Volume 86
Consciousness in Interaction. The role of the natural and social context
in shaping consciousness
Edited by Fabio Paglieri
Consciousness in Interaction
The role of the natural and social context
in shaping consciousness
Edited by
Fabio Paglieri
Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie della Cognizione, ISTC-CNR, Rome
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam / Philadelphia
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8
the American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Consciousness in interaction : the role of the natural and social context in shaping
consciousness / edited by Fabio Paglieri.
p. cm. (Advances in Consciousness Research, issn 1381-589X ; v. 86)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Consciousness. I. Paglieri, Fabio.
BF311.C6534 2012
153--dc23 2012002089
isbn 978 90 272 1352 5 (Hb ; alk. paper)
isbn 978 90 272 7463 2 (Eb)
© 2012 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands
John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa
This book is dedicated to
Susan L. Hurley (1954–2007)
© Photo by Derek Parfit

Table of contents
Introduction: What does it mean to study consciousness in interaction? ix
Fabio Paglieri
section 1. Phenomenal consciousness: Brain, action and interaction
What reason could there be to believe in pre-reflective bodily
self-consciousness? 3
Adrian Alsmith
Do sensory substitution devices extend the conscious mind? 19
Julian Kiverstein & Mirko Farina
The extended mind and the boundaries of perception and action 41
Nivedita Gangopadhyay
Showtime at the Cartesian Theater? Vehicle externalism and dynamical
explanations 59
Michael Madary
Is the function of consciousness to act as an interface? 73
Bryony Pierce
Es are good: Cognition as enacted, embodied, embedded, affective
and extended 89
Dave Ward & Mog Stapleton
section 2. Social cognition, self-control, artifacts and emotions:
The role of consciousness
Mindshaping and the intentional control of the mind 107
Tillmann Vierkant & Andreas Paraskevaides
“My mind”: Reflexive sociality and its cognitive tools 125
Cristiano Castelfranchi
Coherence of conduct and the self-image 151
Maria Miceli & Cristiano Castelfranchi
Ulysses’ will: Self-control, external constraints, and games 179
Fabio Paglieri
iii Consciousness in Interaction
Bodily intentionality and social affordances in context 207
Erik Rietveld
Seeing with the hands 227
Corrado Sinigaglia
Recognition of emotion in others 239
Nico H. Frijda
The Paratactic Account of propositional attitude ascription 259
Finn Spicer
section 3. Historical perspectives on consciousness in interaction
From sensation to consciousness: Suggestions in modern philosophy 289
Monica Riccio
Theories of consciousness in early-modern philosophy 301
Roberto Palaia
Experience and identity of the self: The emergence of consciousness
as a cognitive concept in the early modern age 311
Antonio Lamarra
Consciousness and imagination in the anthropological view of G. Vico:
The modern concept of coscienza in Vico’s De antiquissima 327
Manuela Sanna
Consciousness and faculties in De antiquissima Italorum sapientia by Vico 337
Geri Cerchiai
Authors 355
References 361
Index 399
Introduction
What does it mean to study consciousness
in interaction?
Fabio Paglieri
Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie della Cognizione ISTC-CNR Rome
For a long time, consciousness has been characterized as a private, inner, interior
faculty, relating to the mental life of the individual, and thereby in principle inacces-
sible to inter-personal scrutiny and insulated from external influences. This view is still
dominant in the commonsense use of the notion, and it colors also the p hilosophical
debate between reductionists and dualists on phenomenal consciousness, inasmuch
as the latter naturally assign stronger emphasis to the irreducibly private character
of conscious experience, as opposed to the former. This volume challenges the
individualistic view of consciousness, presenting a collection of research articles based
on the assumption that consciousness, on the contrary, is best understood as emerging
from, and impacting on, our skilled interactions with the natural and social context.
All contributions originate from a 3-year long, Europe-wide collaboration
within a research project aimed at developing precisely that kind of approach, and
thereby named Consciousness in interaction: The role of the natural and social context
in shaping consciousness (CONTACT). The CONTACT research project was funded
through the European Science Foundation within the EuroCORES programme
CNCC: Consciousness in Natural and Cultural Context (http://www.esf.org/cncc),
and coordinated by the Editor of this volume together with Cristiano Castelfranchi.
This book reflects both the ample scope and tight interconnections characteristic of
the project, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary research at the interface between
philosophy, psychology and neuroscience. It features the work of some leading s cholars
in each field, alongside younger researchers with promising careers ahead of them.
This results in a unique collection of essays on a specific, still largely unexplored
approach to consciousness research: the view that, in order to understand various forms
of conscious experience, we need to look beyond the mind and brain of individual
subjects, studying also their sensory-motor interactions with the environment and
their social life. This interactive approach to consciousness is gaining widespread
recognition worldwide, and this book provides the first attempt of collecting and
comparing different versions and facets of it. The volume also offers, in the last section,