The enactive account of motivated activity and the hard problem of efficacy (HPE): Artificial life meets the physics of life
Tom Froese, Georgii Karelin
May 22, 2023 preprint DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/gqspn (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Citations | 2 |
| Key points | Argues that the enactive account's intrinsic value can affect behavior only through "irruptions"—indeterminate breakdowns of material-organizational constraints—by revising Schrödinger's principle of understandability with a limit. Proposes that this efficacy of motivated activity carries a specific energy cost from disordering, reframing agency and mental work. |
Abstract
The enactive approach to cognitive science has undergone a bio-phenomenologically inspired “normative turn” by characterizing an organism’s activity as motivated by intrinsic value, where this value is grounded in adaptive self-production under precarious conditions. However, efforts in the field of artificial life to model this enactive conception of life have unwittingly revealed a case of what can be called the hard problem of efficacy (HPE): how could any intrinsic value as such make an effective difference to an organism’s behavior, in particular if bodily activity is purely determined by valueless material-organizational factors? First, this theoretical challenge of the HPE is formulated in the context of the enactive account of motivated activity. Then, by critically analyzing Schrödinger’s work on the methodological principles that define the scientific world image, it is argued that they can be revised to allow solutions to the HPE. This involves placing a limit on Schrödinger’s principle of understandability. The key move is to operationalize this limit with the concept of irruption: an organism’s motivations can make a physical difference to its bodily activity, but only indeterminately so, akin to a breakdown of its material-organizational constraints. Irruptions can thereby indirectly facilitate behavior-switching as well as long-term self-organization of adaptive behavior. Finally, it is proposed that the efficacy of motivated activity has its own specific energy cost due to the disordering effect of irruptions, which provides a new perspective on agency and the notion of mental work.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on philosophy of mind, most cited first.
| 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 |
Citations in the library
Cites 10
- Increased spontaneous MEG signal diversity for psychoactive doses of ketamine, LSD and psilocybin Scientific Reports April 19, 2017
- Evolving enactivism: basic minds meet content Philosophical Psychology July 9, 2018
- Consciousness matters: phenomenal experience has functional value. Neuroscience of Consciousness 2022
- Rethinking Nature: Phenomenology and a Non-reductionist Cognitive Science Australasian Philosophical Review April 3, 2018
- The Problem of Meaning in AI and Robotics: Still with Us after All These Years Philosophies April 3, 2019
and 5 more in the library