Review of Ecology of the Brain: The Phenomenology and Biology of the Embodied Mind,Thomas Fuchs

Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences -     

From autonomy to heteronomy (and back): The enaction of social life

The term “social cognition” can be construed in different ways. On the one hand, it can refer to the cognitive faculties involved in social activities, defined simply as situations where two or more individuals interact. On this view, social systems would consist of interactions between autonomous individuals; these interactions form higher-level autonomous domains not reducible to individual actions. A contrasting, alternative view is based on a much stronger theoretical definition of a truly social domain, which is always defined by a set of structural norms; moreover, these social structures are not only a set of constraints, but actually constitute the possibility of enacting worlds that would just not exist without them. This view emphasises the heteronomy of individuals who abide by norms that are impersonal, culturally inherited and to a large extent independent of the individuals. Human beings are socialised through and through; consequently, all human cognition is social cognition. The article argues for this second position. Finally, it appears that fully blown autonomy actually requires heteronomy. It is the acceptance of the constraints of social structures that enables individuals to enter new realms of common meaningfulness. The emergence of social life marks a crucial step in the evolution of cognition; so that at some evolutionary point human cognition cannot but be social cognition.     

Acting Out of Affections: Embodiment,morality and (post) modernity

This article discusses how the epistemological emphasis given to instrumental reason and cognitive classification (mathesis) during modernity resulted in the disparagement of the role of embodiment in constructions of the moral and spiritual self. I show how the disenchantment and desacralisation of nature which accompanied this shift led to an internalisation of the sources of moral action. I suggest that what is now required is a similar attention to embodiment that the medieval Christian tradition of affective imitation and ritual expression encouraged. Drawing primarily from the work of Durkheim, Bauman, and Mestrovic, I discuss how recent sociological work examines and endorses this need to rediscover the sources of moral and spiritual development in authentic somatic experience.     

The Movement of Copying the Bible in South Korea: An Embodiment of Christian and Confucian Spiritualities1

This article examines a new and growing movement in Korean Christianity: making hand-written copies of the Bible. Over the last ten years, the practice of copying the Bible has become increasingly popular among ordinary Christians beyond the boundaries of denomination, age, gender, and profession. It is reported that, by December 2006, there were over 300,000 participants. The Centre for the Bible-Copying Movement, established in 1991, aims at increasing this figure to one million by 2010. In an attempt to uncover the rationale which motivates the practice of copying the Bible, this article situates this movement within the distinctive Korean cultural context of the continuing interplay between Confucianism and Christianity. It is based on the fact that Korea, once the most Confucianised state in East Asia, has become one of the most dynamic Christian countries in the world during the last century. This article argues that the movement of copying the Bible represents a harmonious combination of Christian and Confucian spiritualities: Christian piety for embodying the Word of God and Confucian devotion to self-cultivation through learning.     

In the world but not of it: managing the conflict between Christian and institution.

Christian physicians, nurses and other health care workers must manage a daily conflict of conscience between their Christian faith and predominantly secular health care institutions. This essay examines various efforts for managing these conflicts: a turn towards social justice or a seeking of holiness. Seeking social justice, however, is theologically empty. Traditionally, the Christian requirement that we be "in this world but not of it" requires a journey along a narrow path to holiness. Christian medical morality must, therefore, be understood within this light. However, just as there cannot be generic health care, but rather health care for a particular person's needs and problems there cannot be generic holiness, but only a holiness grounded in worshiping God rightly. In so worshiping the Christian will be assisted in negotiating the inescapable and perilous vocation of being in the world but not of it.