Perception and Reality: Sketch of an Interactive Realism

Abstract

Naturalistic and constructivist theories of cognition conceive of experienced reality as an internal simulation of the external world, which is generated from sensory data in the brain. In this way, they ascribe to perception a fundamentally illusory character compared to physical reality. The chapter contrasts this with an enactive conception of human experience on two levels, which is able to substantiate an interactive realism. On the first level, the objectivity of perception results from the sensorimotor interaction of living beings with their environment. On the second, specifically human level, perception transcends the subjective perspective through an implicit intersubjectivity: we always see, hear, touch, and handle things with the eyes, ears, and hands of others, as it were. This double interactive structure of perception makes it possible to reject the neuro-constructivist illusion theories and to establish a life-worldly realism.