Core Enaction, Semester 1: Genealogy, Session 1 with Prof. Luisa Damiano

We are delighted to announce the launch of a brand new program intended for university students of all levels, from undergraduate to post-doctoral researchers. Conceived as a four-part e-learning curriculum (much like a MOOC), the 'Core Enaction' Series unfolds over the course of four semesters (2022-2024): In Semester 1 (Fall 2022), we retrace the origin story and major building blocks of the enactive view across cognitive science, philosophy, Buddhist thought, and more. In Semesters 2 and 3 (Spring and Fall 2023), we undertake a close reading of The Embodied Mind (F. Varela, E. Thompson, E. Rosch), the foundational text in which the enactive framework was elaborated from a cross-disciplinary perspective. Finally, in Semester 4 (Spring 2024), we consider possible future applications of this robust theoretical framework, across a variety of disciplines. Although guided by current experts in the field, each session is designed to be highly participative, allowing for ample discussion and exchange at each stage of the series. In the 1990s Francisco Varela wrote the words quoted above as an introduction to the work that a philosopher dedicated to the genealogy of early embodied approaches to the cognitive sciences (Ceruti, 1994). Since then, for those who are familiar with Varela’s work, these words continue to resonate as a compelling proposal for the future of the cognitive sciences. More than a generic tribute to the systematic reflection on scientific evolution, they are an invitation to develop an unconventional way of practicing scientific research. In short: it is essential to explore the roots of the approaches at play in frontier research, as only by understanding the emergence and evolution of these approaches can we realize the full expression of their potential, which relies on creative reinterpretations of them, or transformative filiations. Concretely, the first semester of the Core Enaction series is broken down into seven sessions, in which the invited speakers, the participants and the organizers will study and discuss together important segments of the research path through which Varela elaborated the Enactive Approach. In this first session, the organizers introduced the Core Enaction series, and in particular its Genealogy Semester. Prof. Luisa Damiano, host of the first semester, gave an in-depth introduction about the cybernetic origins of the Enactive Approach. Dr. Luisa Damiano is Associate Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science at the IULM University (Milan, Italy), and the coordinator of the Research Group on the Epistemology of the Sciences of the Artificial (RG-ESA). Her main research areas are: Epistemology of Complex Systems, Epistemology of the Cognitive Sciences, and Epistemology of the Sciences of the Artificial. Since 2007, she has been working on these topics with scientific teams all across Europe and in Japan. Among her publications there are many articles, the books Unità in dialogo (Bruno Mondadori, 2009) and Living with robots (with Paul Dumouchel, Harvard University Press, 2017) and several co-edited journal special issues.