Action and Interaction

"Action and Interaction is divided into three parts. The first part focuses on the nature of action, starting with questions about action individuation, context, the notion of ?basic action? and the temporal structure of action. The importance of circumstance for understanding action is stressed. These topics lead to questions about intention and the sense of agency and ultimately to the idea that we need to consider action in the social contexts of interaction. The second part looks at the role of interaction in discussions of social cognition, building a contrast between standard theory- of-mind approaches and embodied/enactive accounts. Gallagher defends an enactive-interactionist account drawing on evidence from both phenomenology and empirical studies of development, ecological psychology, and studies of communicative and narrative practices, especially in more complex social practices. The third part transitions from considerations that focus on social-cognitive issues to understanding their implications for concepts that are basic to the development of a critical theory that addresses social and political issues, especially with respect to basic concepts of autonomy, recognition and justice, and the effects of norms and social institutions on our actions and interactions" -- Oxford Scholarship Online "Shaun Gallagher presents a ground-breaking interdisciplinary account of human action, bringing out its essentially social dimension. He explores and synthesizes the different approaches of action theory, social cognition, and critical social theory. He shows that in order to understand human agency and the aspects of mind that are associated with it, we need to grasp the crucial role of context or circumstance in action, and the normative constraints of social and cultural practices. He also investigates issues concerning social cognition and embodied intersubjective interaction, including direct social perception and the role of narrative and communicative practices from an interdisciplinary perspective. Gallagher thereby brings together embodied and enactive approaches to action for the first time in this book and, in developing an alternative to standard conceptions of understanding others, he bridges social cognition and critical social theory, drawing out the implications for recognition, autonomy, and justice."-- Provided by publisher Table of Contents 8 AcknowledgmentsI 10 Figures 12 Table 13 Introduction 14 PART I Action 18 1 Actions and Abstractions 20 2 Time in Action 38 3 Action, Intention, and the Sense of Agency 55 PART II Interaction 80 4 The Case Against Theory of Mind 82 5 Interaction 111 6 Direct Social Perception 134 7 Communicative Actions and Narrative Practices 168 PART III A Critical Turn 198 8 Recognition and Critical Interaction Theory 200 9 Telling Actions: Institutions, Collective Agency, and Critical Narratives 225 10 A Practice of Justice 251 References 272 Index 310