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Closing The Representational Gap: An Embodied-Enactive View Of Narcissistic Representational Systems, Victor Parchment Jan 2016

Closing The Representational Gap: An Embodied-Enactive View Of Narcissistic Representational Systems, Victor Parchment

2016 Undergraduate Awards

According to tracking theories of mental content, the world we conceive is determined by the world we perceive, and the world we perceive is determined by the mind-independent world as it is. This view is challenged by Kathleen Akins on the grounds that our sensory systems are narcissistic, i.e., they have narrow operational interests and are largely unconcerned with representing objective reality. Yet, if what we conceive is not a veridical representation of the world, how is object-guided action in the world possible? This disconnect is the “representational gap”. This paper will close this gap by arguing that Akins’ concept …