MLE Friends Talk with Marek McGann

“Messy Entanglements and Ethical Orientations of Enacted Bodies“

In this talk, Marek will discuss the work from two recent papers, which address the enactive conception of bodies, their relations to their environment, and to other people. Descriptions of bodies within the literature of the enactive approach to cognitive science exhibit an interesting dialectical tension. On the one hand, a body is considered to be a unity which instantiates an identity, forming an intrinsic basis for value. On the other hand, a living body is in a reciprocally defining relationship with an environment, and is therefore immersed in and entangled with, rather than distinct from, that environment. In this talk, he will examine this tension, and implications that arise when bodies are conceived as enacted, complex, and “messy”. On the basis of this, and building on research both within feminist philosophy, as well as work with Basil Vassilicos, he would like to raise how some of the implications for certain ethical relations between these messy bodies might be articulated within such an enactive framework.

If you would like to attend, please join mLE Friends Here!