Enactivism: Conceptual Turn in Epistemology

Abstract

Enactivism as a radical conceptual turn or a paradigm shift in non-classical epistemology
and cognitive science is under consideration in the article. Enactivism is not a new hypertheory,
but rather a system of theoretical notions rooted in bioepistemology (naturalistic epistemology),
because in the frames of enactivism consciousness and its functions are studied in the context of
the understanding of complexity and of nature of complex formations in the world. Consciousness
is viewed as an active and interactive, embodied and situated, its cognitive activity occurs by
building-into environment, i.e. by enacting the environment. The contributions of F. Varela,
E. Thompson, A. Noe to the development of enactivism are retraced in the article. It is shown
that enactivism can be considered as a form of constructivism in epistemology