In their new book Phenomenology: An Introduction philosophers Stephan Käufer and Anthony Chemero present phenomenology in a fresh and compelling manner. They examine its historical roots, but they also argue convincingly that phenomenology is making important contributions to contemporary philosophy, psychology, and cognitive science. These contributions are the focus of my interview with Dr. Anthony Chemero (BI 59), but we start out by discussing what phenomenology is, so this discussion requires no background knowledge. In fact, I think Phenomenology: An Introduction would be a good book to give to any scientist who feels that philosophy is no longer relevant to scientific endeavors.

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References

• Phenomenology: an Introduction by Stephan Käufer and Anthony Chemero
• Radical Embodied Cognitive Science by Anthony Chemero
• Embodied Cognition by Lawrence Shapiro (BSP 73)
• Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of Mind by Evan Thompson (BSP 89)
• Louder Than Words: The New Science of How the Mind Makes Meaning by Benjamin K. Bergen (BSP 94)
• For more references please check out the free episode transcript.

Brain Science episodes

• BSP 25: Rolf Pfeifer discussed embodied intelligence in robotics
• BSP 36: Psychologist Art Glenberg introduced us to Gibson's affordances
• BSP 58: Philosopher Alva Noë discussed Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness.
• BSP 73: Embodied Cognition with Lawrence Shapiro
• BSP 89: Evan Thompson talked about Phenomenology and how it inspires the Enactive approach to embodied cognition
• BSP 94: (FREE) Benjamin Bergen (Louder than Words) discussed how embodied approaches are influencing contemporary psychology.

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