Embodied Intelligence and the Phenomenology of AI
Saakshi Anand
Advances in Computational Intelligence and Robotics December 12, 2025 DOI: 10.4018/979-8-3373-5530-6.ch008 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Key points | Argues that consciousness is fundamentally rooted in embodied, context-dependent, and experiential structures, not in disembodied computation. |
Abstract
The intersection of artificial intelligence (AI), embodied cognition, and phenomenology represents one of the most profound and complex inquiries in contemporary philosophy of mind. This chapter explores the epistemological and ontological dimensions of embodied intelligence and its relationship to the phenomenology of consciousness, with a specific focus on qualia—the subjective, first-person qualities of experience. By bridging computational models of intelligence with phenomenological analyses of perception and awareness, the chapter advances an integrative framework that challenges reductionist and purely mechanistic views of cognition. It argues that consciousness, rather than emerging from disembodied computation, is fundamentally rooted in embodied, context-dependent, and experiential structures. Drawing from phenomenological thinkers such as Husserl, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty, alongside contemporary AI paradigms including connectionism and enactivism.
Comparable studies
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| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Psychosis as a state of aberrant salience: a framework linking biology, phenomenology, and pharmacology in schizophrenia. | 2003 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From dopamine to salience to psychosis--linking biology, pharmacology and phenomenology of psychosis. | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How do the brain's time and space mediate consciousness and its different dimensions? Temporo-spatial theory of consciousness (TTC). | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The phenomenology of deep brain stimulation-induced changes in OCD: an enactive affordance-based model. | 2013 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Looking for the Self: Phenomenology, Neurophysiology and Philosophical Significance of Drug-induced Ego Dissolution | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |