MLE Friends Talk with Prof Ezequiel Di Paolo

“Enaction, Dialectics, and Poetry”

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

For many, the enactive approach has become synonymous with a verse from Spanish poet Antonio Machado, “Laying down a path in walking,” which describes the enactive outlook with uncanny precision while also intimating a deep affinity between enaction and poetic modes of knowing. Yet, almost no one to date has undertaken a serious study of enaction and poetry as kindred modes of knowing, being, and doing. In this unprecedented presentation, Prof Ezequiel Di Paolo will begin by walking us through some of the key features of enaction, including its lesser known reliance on dialectics, before considering how language is understood from the enactive perspective, weaving together linguistic agency, participatory sense-making, listening epistemology, embodiment, normativity, and the creativity of world-processes. Throughout the presentation, he will use these conceptual anchors to shed light on the many ways in which poetry resonates deeply with the enactive approach to life and mind, in its capacity to ‘sing the world’ with astonishing richness — and in so doing, show how the two can mutually illuminate one another.

For those who followed our online programming in 2025, this talk will be an important extension of our inquiry into the deep reciprocity between art, science, and enaction.