Ruumiillinen resonanssi : peilisolut, simulaatio, fenomenologia

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the sensorimotor nature of perception focusing on questions regarding mirror neuron research, simulation theory and phenomenology. Brain research has shown that the same pre-motor neurons that fire when executing an action also fire when one perceives that same action. This leads to the assumption that the actions of others are mirrored on a sub-personal level. For example, when I see someone grasp a coffee cup my mirror neurons fire as if I myself grasped a coffee cup. According to the evidence provided by neuroscientists, the perceiver’s own motor abilities have a role in their perceptual experience. In other words, the perceiver resonates pre-reflectively the actions of others. Both simulation theorists and phenomenologists have given their explanations for how we understand the actions of others and whether and how the perceiver’s own ability to move constitutes the possibilities of interaction that person detects in the environment. These philosophical traditions do not coincide, however, and a more thorough analysis between simulation theory and phenomenological research regarding the topic is presented in this dissertation. The first chapter discusses the evolution and results of the research on mirror neurons, describing also the rich history of movement research related to it. The historical and contemporary formulations of simulation theory are also analyzed. The end of the first chapter clarifies what is it like to understand actions in relation to one’s own interaction possibilities. To this end, Edmund Husserl’s notion of “I can”, James J. Gibson’s theory of affordances and the theory of enactive perception are elucidated. The second chapter clarifies the pre-reflective or pre-rational aspects of perceptual experience. As the first chapter makes clear, understanding actions or associating actions with social situations and objects is not merely a causal mechanical mirroring process but relates to the perceiver’s own movement history. The concepts “affordance” and “affectivity” are then introduced in the context of the view that situations and meanings of objects are to be understood in relation to their affective background and the possibilities of action they provide. The third chapter analyzes the behavioral aspects of resonance, that is, how perception prepares the perceiver to act. This chapter analyzes the bodily understanding of the situation in action, that is how the perceiver’s understanding of the actions of the other is expressed, not by reflecting on the situation but by means of their own bodily responses.