Study On The Enactive Approach To Perception

Humankind have puzzled over cognition for thousands of years. Perception occupies the very special position, because it connects "physical domain" and "psychological domain". Based on many branches such as philosophy, cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience etc, the main work of this paper is to discuss the limitations of traditional cognitivism, to introduce the perception view of enactive approach, and at last to reveal the nature of cognition.The core philosophical idea of traditional cognitivism is "mechanical metaphor" it depicts perception as an information flow and a nervous process. In ontology, it has the consistency of Descartes’s dichotomy position. In methodology, it inherits the mechanistic research tradition and the individualistic approach from the western modern science. However, in scientific practice it had been hauled into the whirlpool of debate, such as the issue of "underdetermination" and the debate between "direct" and "indirect" of perception. The traditional cognitivism far from bridging the gap between "psychological domain" and "physical domain", it has created new chasms between representation and perceptive experience. Although Embodied cognition had taken the first step toward opposing "mechanical metaphors", it is not strictly a paradigm for cognitive science.Enactive cognition points toward a new path for cognitive science. It provides not only a genuine resolution of the mind-body problem, but also a genuine core articulation between a multiplicity of disciplines. It advocates that the core of enactive approach is the life-mind continuity and cognition should be studied in it. The enactive approach is based on a number of mutually supporting core concepts, such as autonomy, sense-making, emergence, embodiment, and experience. According to the enactive approach in cognitive science, cognition is grounded on the sense-making activity of autonomous agents to generate and sustain themselves, and thereby enact or bring forth their own domains of meaning and value. The theory of the cognition is already a theory of perception. The enactive approach does not start from the the input-output relationship, but from an autonomous agent in the dynamic sensori-motor bop.The discussion of fundamental question on perception should be conducive to further testing of theoretical effectiveness. First, the "underde termination" issue in perception means that the contents of perception cannot be decided separately by retina image. On the enactive point of view, the content of perception is not always detailed and complete, "perceptual presence in absence" is a mode of awareness of the environment that is mediated by a particular network of sensorimotor contingencies. Second, when confronting the debate between "direct" and "indirect" of perception, the enactive approach suggests that the question is the wrong inside/outside distinction for perception. On the contrary, perception is neither internal, nor external, it belongs to the’relational domain’in which the system as a unity relates to the wider context of its milieu. Finally, in the discussion of color, the enactive approach neither agree with subjectivism who reduce it to mere nervous process and mental experience, nor subscribe to objectivism who put it down to the property of objects. Color has its ownlogic, it is embodied and enactive, it exists only in the interaction of physical, psychological, cognitive and cultural.Individual perception must be the simplification of social cognition. When considering the real cognitive process, it will be a way to deepen a discussion if it is placed in a specific social, historical, and cultural context. From an enactive perspective, social cognition is grounded on the participatory sense-making activity based on social interaction of autonomous agents-beings that actively generate and sustain themselves. But meanwhile, natural selection should be redefined, and cognitive development cannot be equal to biological evolution. Culture is not a module embedded in cognition, it not only affects our cognition, neurological development and behavioural learning, but also be reshaped by cognition. Every human being is equally the enculturation subject. Finally, from individual cognition to social cognition, from interaction to enculturation, the enactive approach can provide an encompassing framework for perception, the core idea of enaction - the life-mind strong continuity thesis has been a leading thread throughout.