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The Mental Affordance Hypothesis

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Peer-reviewed

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Article

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Abstract

jats:titleAbstract</jats:title> jats:pOur successful engagement with the world is plausibly underwritten by our sensitivity to affordances in our immediate environment. The considerable literature on affordances focuses almost exclusively on affordances for bodily actions such as gripping, walking or eating. I propose that we are also sensitive to affordances for mental actions such as attending, imagining and counting. My case for this ‘Mental Affordance Hypothesis’ is motivated by a series of examples in which our sensitivity to mental affordances mirrors our sensitivity to bodily affordances. Specifically, subjects perceive opportunities to perform a mental action and their doing so leads, under the right conditions, to the automatic preparation of that action. I conclude by sketching a mental affordance research program that would reinforce my case for the Mental Affordance Hypothesis and establish its ramifications for a number of debates across philosophy and psychology.</jats:p>

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Keywords

5003 Philosophy, 50 Philosophy and Religious Studies, Mental Health, Mental health, 3 Good Health and Well Being

Journal Title

Mind

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0026-4423
1460-2113

Volume Title

Publisher

Oxford University Press (OUP)

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All rights reserved