Enkinaesthesia, biosemiotics and the ethiosphere

Stuart, S.A.J. (2010) Enkinaesthesia, biosemiotics and the ethiosphere. In: Cowley, S., Major, J.C., Steffensen, S. and Dini, A. (eds.) Signifying Bodies: Biosemiosis, Interaction and Health. Portuguese Catholic University: Braga, Portugal, pp. 305-330. ISBN 9789726971917

Abstract

The dynamic plenisentient interrelation of agent and world is specified in kinaesthetic terms. Kinaes-thetic activity, with its temporal-spatial-energic qualities, is always affectively-laden, and through the formation of intercorporeal resonances, the activity necessitates enkinaesthetic entwining with those agents with whom, and those objects with which, we are in relations of perpetual community. I will argue that the capacity for enkinaesthetic dialogue is an a priori nomological condition for agency and the generation of a felt anticipatory dynamics both within and between agents. Enkinaesthesia emphasizes not just the neuromuscular dynamics of the agent, that is, the givenness and ownership of its experience but also the entwined, blended and situated co-affective feeling of the presence of the other (agential and non-agential alike) and, where appropriate, the enkinaesthetically anticipated arc of the other’s action or movement, including, again where appropriate, the other’s intentionality. The ‘other’ can be sensing and experiencing agents and it is their affective intentional reciprocity, their folding, enfolding and unfolding, which co-constitutes the conscious relation and the experientially recursive temporal dynamics that lead to the formation and maintenance of integral enkinaesthetic structures and melodies. Such deeply felt enkinaesthetic melodies emphasise the dia- logical nature of the feeling of being as the feeling of being-with or being-among, and demonstrate the paucity of individuating notions that treat agents as singular. Enkinaesthesia, as the openness to and reception of myriad subtle multi-drectional cues in dialogical relations, provides grounds for saying, following Heidegger, that it is this which constitutes the pri- mordial mood of care for human relationships and the deep roots of morality. If this is the case, then we might think of it as composing an ‘ethiosphere’ consistent with the semiosphere and the biosphere as presented by Hoffmeyer [1995 and 2008].

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Stuart, Dr Susan
• Authors: Stuart, S.A.J.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities > Information Studies
• Publisher: Portuguese Catholic University
• ISBN: 9789726971917