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Researcher
Zuzanna Aleksandra Rucinska
- Research Expertise:This research aims to explore the potential of Enactivism for explaining pretending. Pretending is part of a common development of children, and belongs to our cultural repertoire. Yet, pretending is still not well understood. Many are inclined to speak of pretending as representing 'x as y'. This is known as Cognitivism. It says that pretending requires representing absence, knowledge of what is real and not real, and knowledge of norms. To explain these features of pretending, Cognitivism relies mainly on the workings of internal mental architectures. These explanations do not capture well the interactive and social nature of pretending. In my proposal, I will investigate how an Enactivist approach explains pretending while avoiding the problems of Cognitivists. Enactivism includes interaction in its explanation of cognition, and often relies on dynamical explanations of cognition that stress the interplay between the brain, the body and the (social) environment. It proposes that knowledge of social norms is developed in pretend play, not assumed. Enactivism has only begun to be applied to basic forms of pretend playing with objects, but more needs to be said to account for absences or keeping track of fiction. This proposal will extend the earlier work, looking at development of role play and imaginary play, and aims to show that Enactivist account of complex pretending is possible. This research is useful for therapeutic practice that makes use of pretend play.
- Keywords:ENACTIVISM, IMAGINATION, PLAY, Philosophy (incl. moral science)
- Disciplines:Theory and methodology of philosophy, Philosophy, Ethics, Other philosophy, ethics and religious studies not elsewhere classified, Product development, Study of regions, Other humanities and the arts
- Research techniques:Techniques: The research uses: I. Collection of existing accounts on pretending from developmental psychology; II. Analysis of the accounts on pretending from Cognitivist and Enactivist positions; III. Implementation of an Enactivist model in explaining pretending (addressing issues pertaining to double knowledge, absence, normativity); IV. Application of the results to better understand therapeutic practices.
- Users of research expertise:Philosophical community Psychologists (developmental, social) Therapists (Interactie Academy Antwerp, other) Play researchers, play industry