Direct perception: Contribution of Peircean Pragmatism to the Ecological Approach

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X 12th European Workshop on Ecological Psychology – Miraflores de la Sierra/Spain Direct perception: Contribution of Peircean Pragmatism to the Ecological Approach Paulo Henrique Araújo Oliveira Pereira1, João Antonio de Moraes2 Supervisor: Maria Eunice Quilici Gonzalez Department of Philosophy, State University of São Paulo (UNESP), Academic Group of Cognitive Studies (GAEC), Marília, SP, Brazil1,2,Center of Logic, Epistemology and History of Science (CLE-UNICAMP)2 Email addresses: phaop44@hotmail.com1; moraesunesp@yahoo.com.br2 >Gibson (1979/1986)affordances: information available to the organisms directly perceived in the environment that enables actions. ‘‘Wisdom lies in nicely discriminating the occasions for reasoning and the occasions for going by instinct.’’ (CP 7.606). >Our hypothesis: the concept of reasonable can encompass elements like instinct, emotion and sensibility to the domain of perception/action without necessarily render it indirectly, allowing a criterion of decision in the domain of action that may enriches Gibson’s theory of direct perception based mainly on affordances. -Constraints/Events/Niches: they refer mainly to exteroperception, allow a external view of what surrounds the organisms. In general, the key concepts of direct perception theory don’t seem to focus on the motivation of systems’ actions. >Objective: toindicate elements of Peircean pragmatism that help to understand the process of organism’s decision that seems to complement the theory of direct perception; >Problem: Gibson (1979/1986) seems to leave unexplained the organism’s ability to take decisions. So we will try to analyze aspects of the Peircean pragmatism that help to elucidate such gap. i) Pierce’s categories -Firstness: what is free, new, spontaneous and casual. Appears like pure quality. -Secondness: alterity, characteristic of reactive, force, resistence and otherness. -Thirdness: law, generality. Could be the adjustment, synthesis or generalization. *The three are intrinsecaly interconnected. >The Reasonable Our suggestion: since reason doesn’t constitute an underlying element of direct perception, the concept of reasonable could integrate a criterion of decision to the theory of direct perception adding to it some new features: -Sensibility: shapes our beliefs corresponding to the intensity of pro/cons/chances. -Instinct: associates our actions with our function (skills), purposes and feelings (CP 1.178; 6.476). ‘‘When reason is in crises begs the succour of instinct’’ (CP.1.630). -Emotions: encompasses all kinds of qualities directly felt as body states, but don’t recognize these qualities, because don’t analyze or compare it (CP 1.376). ii) Pierce’s description of perception -Firstness - percept: what simply appears to the organism in an arbitrary way. -Secondness - percipuum:forces itself immediately to the acknowledgement without why or wherefore (CP 7.643). -Thirdness - perceptual judgment: is a proposition of existence determined by the percept, which it interprets (CP 4.539). *A percept cannot be false, since it makes no assertion and it is not a proposition, whether indicative, interrogative, imperative, or in any mood whatever (CP 7.658). >Final considerations 1)Reasonableness gives a ground to perception/action enriching the meaningful information since it indicates specific elements relevant to each organism. II) To properly approach the notion of affordances we may need to make reference to sensibility/instinct/emotions in order to understand primary motivation for action. Facial expression, for example, provides a sense of people’s personality/motivation/emotion providing ways to interact with environment and with other organisms. Figure 1 iii) Reasonable X Reason in Peircean pragmatism Figure 2 Figure 4 Figure 3 References GIBSON, J. J. The ecological approach to visual perception. New Jersey: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates, Inc, 1986. (Original work published 1979). PEIRCE, C.S. Semiótica. São Paulo: Perspectiva, 1999. ______. The Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce. Electronic edition.Vols. I VI. (Eds.) Hartshorne, C & Weiss, P. (1958). Vols. VII-VIII. (Ed.) Burks, A. W. Charlottesville: Intelex Corporation. Cambridge: Harvard University, 1931-1935. RODRIGUES, G. C. L.; MORAES, J. A. Information and meaning: do artificial systems manipulate meaningful information? Work presented in VIII EBICC, 2009. ROSENBERG E. L.; EKMAN P. Facial expression and emotion. American Psychologist, v.48, n.4, 384-392. SANTAELLA, L. A teoria geral dos signos: Como as linguagens significam as coisas. São Paulo: Pioneira, 2000. SILVEIRA, L. F. B. Curso de Semiótica Geral. São Paulo: Quartier Latin, 2007. TURVEY, M. T.; CARELLO, C. The equation of information and meaning from the perspectives of situation semantics and Gibson's ecological realism. In: Linguistics and Philosophy, v. 8, p. 81-90, 1985. Images 1- http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficheiro:Expression_of_the_Emotions_Figure_15.png 2- http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficheiro:Vincent_Van_Gogh_-_Sorrow.JPG 3- http://marciaballestero.com/2010/04/19/smile-and-laugh-with-every-child-and-make-your-home-a-haven/ 4- http://yogacalm.wordpress.com/tag/health/ Financial Support: -Escritório de Relações Internacionais (ERI) – UNESP -Bolsa: PIBIC/CNPq -Bolsa: FAPESP (processo 2011/15601-4) -Projeto Temático: “Sistêmica, Auto-Organização e Informação” (processo 10/52627-9)