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5 - Agency and objectivity

Jeff Malpas
Affiliation:
University of Tasmania
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Summary

Only a creature whose structure affords it the possibility of movement can be a sensing being.

Erwin Strauss, The Primary World of the Senses

Although my primary concern in this investigation is, as I have indicated previously, with the sort of ‘conceptualised’ experience that is characteristic of human experience, and with thought as it is associated with judgment and conceptuality, many of the connections that are of special interest to this investigation, and that obtain between spatiality, agency and experience, actually arise at a very primitive level. Earlier I noted that any creature capable of directed movement, either of its whole body or of parts of its body, must not only be located within some space in which such movement is possible, but must also possess a grasp of that space (although not necessarily a conceptual grasp) both as it is subjectively presented and as it is independent of any particular perspective within it. And this must apply to any creature, whether or not it has a capacity to think in terms of concepts. Likewise, the capacity for organised, directed behaviour – for action – is crucial in enabling the organisation and integration of mental life, in general, irrespective of the conceptual abilities of the creature concerned.

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Place and Experience
A Philosophical Topography
, pp. 109 - 137
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1999

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  • Agency and objectivity
  • Jeff Malpas, University of Tasmania
  • Book: Place and Experience
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511487606.006
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  • Agency and objectivity
  • Jeff Malpas, University of Tasmania
  • Book: Place and Experience
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511487606.006
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Agency and objectivity
  • Jeff Malpas, University of Tasmania
  • Book: Place and Experience
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511487606.006
Available formats
×