Andy Clark (1998) Could Sensing Play Multiple Roles?
. Psycoloquy: 9(80) Efference Knowledge (6)
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Psycoloquy 9(80): Could Sensing Play Multiple Roles?
COULD SENSING PLAY MULTIPLE ROLES?
Commentary on Jarvilehto on Efference-Knowledge
Andy Clark
Philosophy/Neuroscience/Psychology program
Washington University in St. Louis
St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
andy@twinearth.wustl.edu
Abstract
In his engaging and provocative target article,
Jarvilehto (1998) argues that the senses are not transmitters of
environmental information so much as connections that support
dynamic organism-environment systems. I think there is much to
applaud in this treatment, but I want to raise two small doubts:
one concerning the nature of the target (why information
transmission rather than inner model-building?) and the other
concerning the scope of the claim (is sensing always and only used
in the way the author suggests?).
Keywords
afference, artificial life, efference, epistemology,
evolution, Gibson, knowledge, motor theory, movement, perception,
receptors, robotics, sensation, sensorimotor systems, situatedness
References
- Clark, A (1997) Being There: PUTTING BRAIN, BODY AND WORLD TOGETHER AGAIN (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA)
- Cliff, D and Noble, J (in press) Knowledge-Based Vision and Simple Visual machines. PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY
- Hurley, S (1998) CONSCIOUSNESS IN ACTION (Harvard Univ. Press, Camb. Ma).
- Jarvilehto, T. (1998d) Efferent influences on receptors in knowledge formation. PSYCOLOQUY 9(41) http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/cgi/psyc/newpsy?9.41 ftp://ftp.princeton.edu/pub/harnad/Psycoloquy/1998.volume.9/psyc.98.9.41.efference-knowledge.1.jarvilehto
- Lee, D (1980) Visuo-motor Coordination in Space and Time. in G. Stelmach and J. Requin (eds) TUTORIALS IN MOTOR BEHAVIOR (North Holland)
- Smithers, T (1994) Why Better Robots Make It Harder. in D. Cliff, P. Husbands, J.A. Meyer, and S. Wilson (Eds.) FROM ANIMALS TO ANIMATS 3 (p. 64-72). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.