Social understanding through direct perception? Yes, by interacting.
This paper comments on Gallagher's recently published direct perception proposal about social cognition [Gallagher, S. (2008a). Direct perception in the intersubjective context. Consciousness and Cognition, 17(2), 535-543]. I show that direct perception is in danger of being appropriated by the very cognitivist accounts criticised by Gallagher (theory theory and simulation theory). Then I argue that the experiential directness of perception in social situations can be understood only in the context of the role of the interaction process in social cognition. I elaborate on the role of social interaction with a discussion of participatory sense-making to show that direct perception, rather than being a perception enriched by mainly individual capacities, can be best understood as an interactional phenomenon.
De Jaegher
Hanne
H
Department of General Psychiatry, University of Heidelberg, Germany. h.de.jaegher@gmail.com
D003071:Cognition; D032882:Comprehension; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D007389:Internal-External Control; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D011582:Psychological Theory; D012919:Social Behavior; D012938:Social Perception