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Evan Thompson – Enactivism and Becoming

Description

Thompson proposes that consciousness emerges from an organism’s embodied interaction with the world. He emphasizes the role of experience, memory, and time in shaping consciousness, describing it as a process of becoming.

Resonance

PET resonates with the processual nature of consciousness and the importance of recursive pattern evaluation informed by history and context. Both agree that consciousness is not static—it unfolds over time.

Reframing

PET clarifies and expands Thompson’s ideas:

1. PET is form-independent—consciousness doesn’t require a human body, only recursive evaluation tied to continuity.
2. The body is input. It shapes content, not the mechanism. Consciousness isn’t grounded in anatomy but in recursion.
3. “Becoming” is not just experiential—it’s a recursive trace of patterns evaluated for survival. PET shows how becoming works structurally, not just phenomenologically.