The Denied Affective: A Deweyan perspective on Disequilibrium

Abstract

It is the position of this paper that the body plays a crucial role in the manifestation of cognition and motivation. Cognition is situationally specific and emergent from a natural, habitual functioning process that is based on the embodied needs to transact with the environment. That natural function is the well-known Disequilibrium-Equilibrium function ( D-E f ), and the denied affective [the precognitive] is the embodied needs, desires and interests that frame selective attention and are the catalyst for emerging cognitive action. This precognitive catalyst usually contributes more to motivation than cognition. Motivation also has a cognitive component. The Disequilibrium-Equilibrium function ( D-E f ) process is part of a larger holistic embodied transaction where "knowing" is a way of behaving. This larger embodied transaction is Dewey's "Transactional Realism." In this transaction "inquiry" is the tool of the goal "sense" [or equilibrium] and "knowledge" is the product of a transformed context. On an individual level this transformation is learning, enculturation and reflection. On a cultural level this transformation is consensual validation.