The prospective nature of narrative : embodied meaning-making from solo sensorimotor projects to projects of shared intention

Delafield-Butt, Jonathan (2014) The prospective nature of narrative : embodied meaning-making from solo sensorimotor projects to projects of shared intention. In: Meeting Minds: TESIS Summer School, 2014-06-21.

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Abstract

This talk addresses the prospective and embodied structure of individual and social meaning-making. First, the developmental origins of intentionality are explored from an embodied perspective, taking into account the necessary prospective nature of animal movement. Efficient prospective control, evident in human sensorimotor activity from before birth, reveals an adaptive sensorimotor intentionality of a primary, pre-reflexive nature. Further, a structural continuity between the emergence of this earliest form of purposive movement and the basic structure of intentional mental states that ‘includes something as object within itself’, structures cognition as it develops from its first expression in the simple and discrete movements of the foetus to more complex, serially and synchronously organised motor project of adults. Meaning is generated by endogenous action and its contingent sensory consequences, each laden with affective value for vitality and purpose. Shared between individuals in co-created episodes of mutual engagement, these sensorimotor intentions and vital affections structure dialogue and generate common purpose, giving shared meaning to simple or complex acts. This talk will examine the origins of development of embodied meaning-making with discussion of its neurobiological substrates and cognitive implications for both health and pathology.

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