Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Human Distributed Cognition from an Organism-in-Its-Environment Perspective

  • Published:
Biosemiotics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The organism-in-its-environment is recognized as the basic unit of analysis when dealing with living beings. This paper seeks to define the fundamental implications of the concept of the organism-in-its-environment in terms of the biosemiotic concept of human distributed cognition. Human distributed cognition in a biosemiotic context is defined as the ability of a self-referencing organism-in-its-environment to interact with its environment to satisfy its physiological (internal and external) and social needs to survive and sustain itself. The ontogenetic development of the organism-in-its-environment serves as the backdrop to discover the implications of distributed cognition that have general applicability in organisms, but in this paper, are made relevant to human beings.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Browsing entry “Personal” [Def. 1] in Dictionary.com.

  2. Browsing entry “Subjective” [Def. 2] in Dictionary.com.

  3. Browsing entry “Relative” [Def. 3] in Dictionary.com.

  4. Browsing entry “Impersonal” [Def. 4] in Dictionary.com.

  5. Browsing entry “Objective” [Def. 5] in Dictionary.com.

  6. Browsing entry “Absolute” [Def. 6] in Dictionary.com. The use of “absolute” is made without losing sight of the term “relative”, i.e., to emphasize the dynamic nature of the world around us. What is true today might not be true tomorrow. So, what we know today is relative to what we knew yesterday, but on an absolute scale we note that progress is being made. There is certainly an updating that is taking place. So, this progress might be viewed as relative and absolute at the same time, since both instances are concurrently present.

  7. For an enactive perspective of social interaction see (De Jaegher and Di Paolo 2007; Fuchs and De Jaegher 2009; Froese and Di Paolo 2009)

References

  • Bateson, G. (1972). Steps to an Ecology of Mind. (Repr. 1987). Northvale: Jason Aronson Inc..

    Google Scholar 

  • Bateson, G. (1979). Mind and nature: A necessary Unity. New York: E. P. Dutton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berger, P., & Pullberg, S. (1965). Reification and the sociological critique of consciousness. History and Theory, 4(2), 196–211.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bitbol, M. (2002). Science as if situation mattered. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 1(2), 181–224.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cardenas-Garcia, J. F. (2013). Distributed cognition: An ectoderm-centric perspective. Biosemiotics, 6(3), 337–350.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Jaegher, H., & Di Paolo, E. (2007). Participatory sense-making an enactive approach to social cognition. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 6(4), 485–507.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dictionary.com - definitions. (n.d.) Online dictionary in http://www.dictionary.com/. Accessed July 9, 2015.

  • Froese, T., & Di Paolo, E. A. (2009). Sociality and the life–mind continuity thesis. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 8(4), 439–463.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fuchs, T., & De Jaegher, H. (2009). Enactive intersubjectivity: Participatory sense-making and mutual incorporation. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 8(4), 465–486.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoffmeyer, J., & Emmeche, C. (1991). Code duality and the semiotics of nature. In M. Anderson & F. Merrell (Eds.), On semiotic modeling (pp. 117–166). Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hutchins, E. (1995). Cognition in the wild. Cambridge: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Määttänen, P. (2010). Habits as Vehicles of Cognition. Ideas in Action: Proceedings of the Applying Peirce Conference, Nordic Studies in Pragmatism 1. Helsinki: Nordic Pragmatism Network. M. Bergman, S. Paavola, A.-V. Pietarinen and H. Rydenfelt (eds.), 201–210.

  • Maturana, H., & Varela, F. (1980). Autopoiesis and cognition - the realization of the living. Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Maturana, H., & Varela, F. J. (1987). The tree of knowledge: The biological roots of human understanding. Boston: Shambhala Publications, Inc..

    Google Scholar 

  • Queiroz, J., Emmeche, C., & El-Hani, C. N. (2008). A Peircean approach to 'Information' and its relationship with Bateson's and Jablonka's ideas. The American Journal of Semiotics, 24(1–3), 75–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Silva, S. (2013). Reification and fetishism: Processes of transformation. Theory, Culture & Society, 30(1), 79–98.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Varela, F. J. (1996). Neurophenomenology. Journal of Consciousness, 3, 330–349.

    Google Scholar 

  • Varela, F. J. (1997). The naturalization of Phenomenology as the transcendence of nature: Searching for generative mutual constraints. Alter: Revue de Phénoménologie, 5, 355–385.

    Google Scholar 

  • von Uexküll, J. (1957). A stroll through the worlds of animals and men. Instinctive Behavior: The Development of a Modern Concept, Claire H. Schiller (ed. and trans.). New York: International Universities Press, 5–80.

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the reviewers for their comments and suggestions, which have helped to significantly improve the content of this paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland – Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD, 21250, USA

    Jaime F. Cárdenas-García

  2. Kent School of Architecture, University of Kent, Marlowe Building, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NR, UK

    Timothy Ireland

Authors
  1. Jaime F. Cárdenas-García
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Timothy Ireland
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jaime F. Cárdenas-García.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Cárdenas-García, J.F., Ireland, T. Human Distributed Cognition from an Organism-in-Its-Environment Perspective. Biosemiotics 10, 265–278 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12304-017-9293-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12304-017-9293-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation