Restoring to Cognition the Forgotten Primacy of Action, Intention and Emotion

Making sense of the mind is the human odys sey. Today, the cog ni tive sci ences pro vide the vehi cles and équipage. As do all cul tur ally shaped activ i ties, they man i fest crys tal lized gen er al iza tions and ideo log i cal leg a cies, many of which go unques tioned for cen tu ries. From time to time, these ide ol o gies are suc cess fully chal lenged, gen er at ing revi sions and new forms of under stand ing. We believe that the cog ni tive sci ences have reached a sit u a tion in which they have been frozen into one nar row form by the machine met a phor. There is a need to thaw that form and move from a reductionist, atemporal, dis em bod ied, static, ratio nal ist, emo tionand cul ture-free view, to fun da men tally richer under stand ings that include the pri macy of action, inten tion, emo tion, cul ture, real-time con straints, real-world oppor tu ni ties, and the pecu liar i ties of liv ing bod ies. These essays con sti tute an array of moves in that direc tion.