Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences

, Volume 14, Issue 4, pp 1145–1163 | Cite as

Heidegger’s hermeneutic account of cognition

Article
First Online:
  • 343 Downloads

Abstract

Hermeneutic phenomenology is absent in 4 EAC literature (embedded, embodied, enactive, extended and affective cognition). The aim of this article is to show that hermeneutic phenomenology as elaborated in the work of Heidegger is relevant to 4 EAC research. In the first part of the article I describe the hermeneutic turn Heidegger performs in tandem with his ontological turn of transcendental phenomenology, and the hermeneutic account of cognition resulting from it. I explicate the main thesis of the hermeneutic account, namely that cognition is interaction with the world, followed by a discussion of the modes of cognition distinguished in the hermeneutic account. In the second part of the article I discuss the implications of this account with respect to the status and meaning of first, second and third person perspective of cognition. The article concludes with the draft and discussion of an exploratory model of hermeneutic cognition.

Keywords

Hermeneutic phenomenology Interaction Direct and narrative understanding First, second and third person perspective Representation and intersubjectivity 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

References

  1. Allison, T., Puce, Q., & McCarthy, G. (2000). Social perception from visual cues: role of the STS region. Trends in Cognitive Science, 4(7), 267–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  2. Arendt, H. (1978). The life of the mind (Vol. I). New York: Harcourt Brace & Company.Google Scholar
  3. Baldwin, D. A., Baird, J. A., Saylor, M. M., & Clark, M. A. (2001). Infants parse dynamic action. Child Development, 72(3), 708–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  4. De Jaegher, H., & Di Paolo, E. (2007). Participatory sense-making: an enactive approach to social cognition. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 6, 485–507.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  5. Dreyfus, H. (1991). Being-in-the-world: A commentary on Heidegger’s being and time, division I. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
  6. Dreyfus, H. (2012). Why Heideggerian AI failed and How fixing It would require making It more heideggerian. In J. Kiverstein & M. Wheeler (Eds.), Heidegger and cognitive science (pp. 62–104). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
  7. Fleischer, J. and G. Edelman (2009). Brain-based Devices: An Embodied Approach to Linking Nervous System Structure and Function Behavior. IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine (September): 33–42.Google Scholar
  8. Froese, T., & Gallagher, S. (2012). Getting interaction theory (IT) together. Integrating developmental, phenomenological, enactive, and dynamical approaches to social interaction. Interaction Studies, 13(3), 436–468.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  9. Fuchs, T., & De Jaegher, H. (2009). Enactive intersubjectivity: participatory sense-making and mutual incorporation. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 8, 465–486.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  10. Gadamer, H.-G. (1999). Truth and method. New York: Continuum.Google Scholar
  11. Gallagher, S. (2008). Direct perception in the intersubjective context. Consciousness and Cognition, 17, 535–543.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  12. Gallagher, S. (2009). Two Problems of intersubjectivity. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 16(6–8), 289–308.Google Scholar
  13. Gallagher, S., & Seté Jacobson, R. (2012). Heidegger and social cognition. In J. Kiverstein & M. Wheeler (Eds.), Heidegger and cognitive science (pp. 213–245). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
  14. Gallagher, S., & Zahavi, D. (2008). The phenomenological mind. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
  15. Habermas, J. (1984). Vorstudien und Ergänzungen zur theorie des kommunikativen handelns. Suhrkamp: Frankfurt am Main.Google Scholar
  16. Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and time translated by J. Macquarrie and E. Robinson. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
  17. Heidegger, M. (1984). The Metaphysical foundations of logic translated by M.Heim. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
  18. Heidegger, M. (1988). The basic problems of phenomenology translated by a. Hofstadter. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
  19. Heidegger, M. (1995). The fundamental concepts of metaphysics: World, finitude solitude. Translated by W. McNeill and N. Walker. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
  20. Heidegger, M. (1997). Kant and the problem of metaphysics. Fifth edition, enlarged. Translation R. Taft. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
  21. Heidegger, M. (2010). Logic: The question of truth translated by T. Sheehan. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
  22. Husserl, E. (1993). Ideas pertaining to a pure phenomenology and to a phenomenological philosophy, second book: Studies in the phenomenological constitution. Google Scholar
  23. Johnson, S. C. (2000). The recognition of mentalistic agents in infancy. Trends in Cognitive Science, 4, 22–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  24. Kögler, H. H. (2011). Phenomenology, hermeneutics, and ethnomethodology. In I. C. Jarvie & J. Zamora-Bonilla (Eds.), The sage handbook of the philosophy of social sciences (pp. 445–62). London: Sage.Google Scholar
  25. Merleau-Ponty, M. (2005). Phenomenology of perception. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
  26. Przyrembel, M., et al. (2012). Illuminating the dark matter of neuroscience: considering the problem of social interaction from philosophical, psychological, and neuroscientific perspectives. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6(190), 1–15.Google Scholar
  27. Ricoeur, P. (1998). Hermeneutics & the human sciences translated by J. Thompson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
  28. Schilbach, L., et al. (2013). Toward a second-person neuroscience. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 36, 393–462.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  29. Talero, M. (2012). Joint Attention and expressivity: A heideggerian guide to the limits of empirical investigation. In J. Kiverstein & M. Wheeler (Eds.), Heidegger and cognitive science (pp. 246–275). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
  30. Thompson, E. (2007). Mind in life: Biology, phenomenology, and the sciences of mind. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
  31. Translation R., Rojcewicz and A. Schuwer. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Hutto, D. (2008). The Narrative Practice Hypothesis: Clarifications and Implications. Philosophical Explorations: An International Journal for the Philosophy of Mind and Action 11 (3): 175–192.Google Scholar
  32. Trevarthen, C. (1979). Communication and cooperation in early infancy: a description of primary intersubjectivity. In M. Bullowa (Ed.), Before speech the beginning of interpersonal communication Cambridge (pp. 321–47). Cambridge: University Press.Google Scholar
  33. Vasterling, V. (2000). The problem of time: Heidegger’s deconstructive reading of Kant in volume 21. In T. Rockmore (Ed.), Heidegger, German idealism and Neo-Kantianism (pp. 115–32). Amherst: Humanity Books.Google Scholar
  34. Vasterling, V. (2003). Postmodern hermeneutics? Towards a critical hermeneutics. In L. Code (Ed.), Feminist interpretations of Hans-Georg gadamer (pp. 149–80). University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
  35. Wheeler, M. (2005). Reconstructing the cognitive world: The next step. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
  36. Zahavi, D. (2008). Simulation, projection and empathy. Consciousness and Cognition, 17, 514–522.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  37. Zahavi, D. (2012). The time of the self. Grazer Philosophische Studien, 84, 143–159.Google Scholar
  38. Zlatev, J., et al. (2008). The Shared mind: Perspectives on intersubjectivity. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Faculty of Philosophy, Theology and Religion StudiesRadboud UniversityNijmegenThe Netherlands

Personalised recommendations