从表征推理到动缘拾取:激进具身趋势如何改变认知科学

From Representation Reasoning to Picking up Affordances:How the Radical Embodiment Trend Changes Cognitive Science

表征主义将认知理解为具有语义内容的表征符号推理,而表征成为知觉与行动的中介,经典认知科学将其作为核心工作假设。然而,其中所隐藏的二元论立场在当下受到激烈的质疑。为了论证表征主义合理性,一些学者提出基于行动导向表征概念。但是,将表征置于行动之中的辩护方案已经在事实上取消了表征,这更接近于吉布森所提出的动缘概念:认知被理解为一种知觉与行动直接耦合的过程,认知者可以直接拾取环境中的动缘。这一理论通过与动力系统等方法的结合,得以给出一种针对认知解释的新视角:以过程和关系替代实体与属性。这种新视角不仅在认知科学研究中作为方法论起到重要的作用,还在本体论和价值理论中具有丰富的哲学内涵。

Representationalism interprets cognition as the inferential manipulation of representational symbols with semantic content.Representations serve as mediators between perception and action,constituting a core assumption in classical cognitive science.However,the dualistic stance has been challenged in contemporary discourse.To defend the plausibility of representationalism,the theory of action-oriented representation is proposed.Nevertheless,situating representations within actions essentially negates the notion of representation,aligning closer to Gibson's concept of affordance:cognition is a direct coupling process of perception and action,in which agents can pick up affordances directly without any fixed states or symbols.Through integration with methodologies such as dynamical systems,the affordance theory offers a novel perspective on the essence of cognition:replacing entities and attributes with processes and relationships.This new perspective not only plays a crucial methodological role in cognitive science but also holds significant philosophical implications for ontology and value theory.