New wave Theories of Cognition – The advocating of the Embodied, Situated, Enactive characters of Cognition

The new wave of studies in the domain of cognition is presented as a growing research program which is characterized by a critical attitude towards the mainstream in cognitive sciences, and especially by the criticism toward the recourse to internal symbolic representations and computer-like processes, but also by some specific claims: first, that cognition and perception have an embodied and situated character; second, that action plays a crucial role in cognitive and perceptual processes. The two claims are interconnected and they are related to the critical attitude toward internal representations and computational processes: organism can avoid the recourse to internal representations because the organism can go back to the world by perception each time as needed. This means that the situated character of the organism, its interaction with the world, matters for the cognitive processes. The organism that perceives and interacts with the world also possesses a body. The body is the mean for the interaction, and the organism is described as embodied in addition to being situated. Being embodied for an organism has also another meaning.    The body of the organism instantiates a set of abilities, skills, capacities that can be described as both motor and perceptual. It is in reason of these skilled actions and perceptions that the embodied organism can put itself in situation.

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