Symposium 4: Enactivism and Integral Theory

I am excited about it because I've been researching enactivism lately, and there are many diverse connections that came up.  I was planning on blogging about it eventually, but then Balder invited me to join.  I was wary about joining because I have no computer at home right now, and so I won't have as much time to write about it.  I'm glad that I was put at the end.  I should have plenty of time now.

Hopefully, I'll get a computer soon… but not soon enough for the symposium.  I live a few blocks from various coffee houses and if need be I could use the university computer labs that are nearby.  Its not a big deal.  I'm just used to getting on the computer late at night which I can't do with coffeehouses.  So, my time on the computers will be a little bit more limited than usual, but I'll make the time for the symposium.  I'm going to try to get to a computer everyday someone presents.

Bruce/Balder presented the first in the series yesterday (here).  There is a nice discussion going.  Its a bit difficult to understand at first, but once you understand the basic concept of enactivism it becomes easier.  Bruce gives a great introduction and its helping me to understand it all much better.

James is supposed to present today, but he hasn't posted anything yet.  I probably won't see it until tomorrow as I have to leave the coffeehouse shortly.

James presentation is now posted and the discussion is well on its way.

Adam has some preliminary posts (here and here), but I don't know when he is going to post his formal piece.  Like James, he has had computer malfunction and so will probably be likewise delayed.

Maybe to try to outsmart the computers that seem to be failing on participants, Matt/Buddhacious jumped the gun and posted something today (here).  I don't know if that is his final post that was scheduled for monday.  If anyone is really interested in enactivism, Matt has a bunch of other blogs about the subject and some videos on youtube.

Bruce has posted about the altered schedule of the symposium.  Matt's post was a replacement for Adam's Friday slot.  If Adam is able to salvage something of what he planned, then he might be posting on Monday.  I don't know if I'll be posting on the same day as originally planned.  I'll get started on mine tomorrow just in case I have to post earlier than planned.

From a comment of OM's in Jame's blog:

Funny Quote of the Day - Carl Sagan - “In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.”

This symposium has mostly avoided any major disagreements so far.  But I get the sense that this has mostly been because both Bruce and Julian have been holding back their personal views from the discussion. 

I've noticed that Bruce keeps his more controversial ideas out of discussions probably because he doesn't want the discussion to get derailed.  Personally, I'd find it more interesting if the discussion got derailed more often. 

Julian has been holding back I suspect because he has yet to present and he is keeping his thoughts close to his chest.  Julian did finally say something today that clarified his position a bit (here).

panpsychism/panexperientialism and parapsychology

He has briefly mentioned both in the symposium, but I don't think he wants to focus on them.  I think he feels that explaining enactivism without those things is already hard enough.  At a later time, I'll have to do a search in his blog to see if he has written more fully about these subjects.

Here is Adam's presentation and here is Julian's.
And, for our final presentation, here is mine.

I'm not satisfied with my finished product, but it was the best I could do under the constraints of my situation.  I wasn't able to get on a computer much these last couple of days.  Besides some spellchecking, what I posted is just a rough draft.  I would liked to have added more details or connect it better to specific ideas within enactivism and integralism, but I didn't have the time.  Some links to explanatory info would've also been nice.

Oh well.  Its good enough.  I was able to communicate the general vision I had in mind, and so I'll just have to be satisfied with that.

Thaks for the kind words, Nicole.  Its nice to hear from you.  We've both been busy lately it seems.  As soon as I get my new computer this next week, I'll have to spend some time catching up over at the God Pod.

If you're interested, I just posted the second installment of my notes which are from the books I was looking at.

Sorry to hear that you're feeling down.  Ill and depressed… what a combination.  Have you been resting?  I'm sure you could use a break in order to recuperate.

Take care, hugs.

In case anyone is still following the comments in this blog, I'll link to Bruce's most recent blog.

Symposium Addendum: Further Thoughts on Enactivism

I still need to read Bruce's recent blog all the way through.  I like it because he brings in some of his own personal interests and practices which he didn't do with his formal presentation.  I'm feeling impatient to have the time to really dig back into the whole symposium and get an overall sense of enactivism.