Abstract

This introductory chapter briefly surveys the central claims of the enactive approach, most notably, the theory of biological autonomy and sense-making. It also shows the necessity of uncovering the roots of cognition not only in the nature of our living bodies, as enactivists currently uphold, but also in the ecological places we live in, from the same enactive perspective. The main arguments in favor of the ecological–enactive view of cognition developed in the rest of the book are essentially founded on Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology, Gibson’s ecological psychology, and Casey’s philosophy of place. The final section of this chapter outlines these arguments.