Cognitive Science Today, What is it to You?
Journal of Consciousness Studies December 1, 2023 DOI: 10.53765/20512201.30.11.214 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that an enactive science of inter-being benefits from autism research grounded in autistic experience and intersubjectivity, which is more ethically just and scientifically rich than cognitivist approaches. Discusses Bervoets and Hens (2020) to show that autism research is unavoidably theoretical, enabling progress beyond the autism-dysfunction catch-22. |
Abstract
In a paper from the late 1990s, Francisco Varela indicates that a science of inter-being is on the horizon. But how to envisage such a science? Here I propose that an enactive science of inter-being will benefit from engaging with recent innovative autism research that starts from autistic experience and intersubjectivity. Properly intersubjective autism research is both more ethically just and scientifically richer than cognitivist explanations that have dominated research, discourse, and practice for a long time, and which have tended to set people apart more than connect them. I discuss the work of Bervoets and Hens (2020), who show how autism research is unavoidably theorethical, and must be in order to move past the catch-22 they identify between autism and dysfunction. This kind of research exemplifies a participatory sense-making between subjects and scientists, and it is here that 'steps to a science of inter-being' (Varela, 1999a) are being taken.