Jasper van den Herik – Philosopher of Language and Mind

Research statement I’m interested in language as something we do. From a radical enactive-ecological perspective, I investigate different aspects of human cognition related to our linguistic capacities, such as the nature of linguistic knowledge, the constitution of normativity, and the origins of representations.

Position I’m currently a postdoc in the group of Erik Rietveld where I work on extending the Skilled Intentionality Framework to language.

PhD Thesis In June 2019, I succesfully defended my PhD thesis Talking about Talking – An Ecological-Enactive Perspective on Language.

Recent talk at the ELDM workshop in Lyon, February 2020.

Publications

Attentional actions – an ecological-enactive account of utterances of concrete words
In: Psychology of Language and Communication, volume 21(2), 2018.
Online open access .

ABSTRACT

This paper proposes an ecological-enactive account of utterances of concrete words – words used to indicate observable situations, events, objects, or characteristics. Building on the education of attention model of learning, utterances of concrete words are defined as attentional actions: a repeatable form of behaviour performed by a person to indicate (i.e. point out) a particular aspect of the current situation to someone in order to achieve something. Based on recent empirical evidence on categorical colour perception, attentional actions are proposed to constrain the ongoing phenotypic reorganisation of persons into task-specific devices. The paper ends by situating the proposed account in a wider theoretical perspective on language. This paper serves two purposes: first, it undermines the scope objection against the ecological-enactive approach, and second, it provides a novel explanation for recent empirical evidence with respect to the role of language in categorical colour perception.

Linguistic know-how and the orders of language
In: Language Sciences, volume 61, 2017.
Online – Penultimate version (.pdf)

ABSTRACT

This paper proposes an account of linguistic knowledge in terms of knowing-how, starting from Love’s seminal distinction between first-order linguistic activity and second-order (or metalinguistic) practices. Metalinguistic practices are argued to be constitutive of linguistic knowledge. Skilful linguistic behaviour is subject to correction based on criterial support provided through metalinguistic practices. Linguistic know-how is knowing-how to provide and to recognise criterial support for first-order linguistic activity. I conclude that participation in first-order linguistic activity requires a critical reflective attitude, which implies that all first-order linguistic activity has a second-order dimension.

Het Cognibolistische Keijzerrijk
Co-author: F.A. Muller
In: Algemeen Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Wijsbegeerte, volume 108(2), 2016
Online – prepublication (.pdf)

Andere geesten belichaamd [Other Minds Embodied]
In: Tim de Mey (Ed.) Het nadeel van de zekerheid, Lemniscaat, 2015.
penultimate version (.pdf)

Why Radical Enactivism is not Radical Enough: A Case for Really Radical Enactivism
unpublished Ma. Thesis., 2014.
download in .pdf

Is Information Out There?
In: Erasmus Student Journal of Philosophy, volume 5, 2013
published version in .pdf

Talks

Conference and Workshop Presentations

2020

Reflective Situated Normativity with E. Rietveld, [poster, cancelled due to Corona], Ecogs 2020, 23 March, OIST Okinawa, JP.

Habits for Higher Cognition , Habit: ontological and phenomenological approaches, 5 March, Erasmus University Rotterdam, NL.

Situated Normativity in Languaging with E. Rietveld, Embodied interactions, Languaging and the Dynamic Medium, 18 February, Lyon, FR.

2019

Rethinking Language in the Symposium Higher Cognition without Representation, with Z. Rucinska and D. Dronkers, OZSW Conference, 15 November, University of Amsterdam, NL.

Attentional Actions and the Complex Interplay of Time-scales in the symposium “Integrating the
ecologies of language, communication and development”, organised by C. Read & J. Raczaszek-
Leonardi, ICPA, 29 June, Groningen, NL.

An Ecological-Enactive Account of Language, Faculty Colloquium Erasmus School of Philosophy, 27 February, Erasmus University Rotterdam, NL.

2018

An Ecological-Enactive Acount of Language: Attentional Actions and Reflexivity, Getting Real About Words and Numbers Conference, 31 October, Antwerp University, BE.

Attentional Actions and Metalinguistic Reflexivity, Skilled Embodiment: Learning from Symbolizations, 27 August, Centre for Human Interactivity, Syddanks University, DK.

Reconceiving Cognition Requires Rethinking Language, Reconceiving Cognition, 29 June, Antwerp University, BE.

Reflexivity as Constraining Constraints, European Workshop on Ecological Psychology, 12 June, Montauban, FR.

Attentional Actions and Assertions, New directions in philosophy of language and linguistics, 5 June, Pontifical Lateran University Rome, IT.

2017

Towards A Radical Enactive-Ecological Account Of Content, Evolving Enactivism Workshop, 5 December, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, DE.

The Ontogenetic Origins of Content Through Metalinguistic Mastery, RANT workshop, 27 October, Radboud University Nijmegen, NL.

The Ontogenetic Origins of Content Through Metalinguistic Mastery, Trends in Interdisciplinary Studies, 3rd Avant Conference, 21 October, Lublin, PL.

The Ontogenetic Origins of Content Through Metalinguistic Mastery, LangEnact II, 26 September, South Denmark University, Odense, DK.

The Ontogenetic Origins of Content, Workshop Getting Real About Words and Numbers, 12 June, Erasmus University Rotterdam, NL.

2016

Enactive enlanguaging as the education of attention: the case of colour, International Conference on Language and Enaction, 1 June, Clermont Auvergne University (Blaise Pascal), FR.

Languaging as Participatory Presencing, 3rd International Conference on Interactivity, Language and Cognition, 30 June, Kingston University, London, UK.

2015

Content in an Enactivist Explanation of Linguistic Cognition, Dutch Research School of Philosophy Conference, 12 December, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, NL.

Content in a Radical Enactivist Account of Linguistic Cognition, Situating Cognition: Agency, Affect, and Extension, 2nd International Conference in Trends in Interdisciplinary Studies, 18 October, University of Warsaw, PL.

Getting Real about Words, European Philosophy of Science Association Conference, 24 September, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, DE.

Content in a Radical Enactivist Account of Linguistic Cognition, Interactivity, Cognition, and the Embrained Body, 18 September, South Denmark University, Odense, DK.

Getting Real About Words, Enriching Embodied Cognition Workshop, 11 June, Bogazici University, Istanbul, TR.

Getting Real about Language: Towards an Enactivist Perspective on Linguistic Cognition, Graduate Conference in Theoretical Philosophy, 1 May, Radboud University, Nijmegen, NL.

Representation Rejected: Skepticism about using Content to Explain Cognition, Dutch Flemish Association for Analytic Philosophy Conference, 28 Januari, Erasmus University Rotterdam, NL.

Representation Rejected: An Enactivist Take on Linguistic Cognition, Dutch Flemish Day of Philosophy, 17 Januari, University of Groningen, NL.

2014

Why Radical Enactivism is not Radical Enough: A Case For Really Radical Enactivism, Summerschool on Epistemology and Cognition, August, University of Groningen, NL.

Why Radical Enactivism is not Radical Enough: A Case For Really Radical Enactivism, Graduate Conference in Theoretical Philosophy, May, VU Amsterdam, NL.

Ranting and Raving about Representation in Explaining Cognition, Metametaphysical Club, May, Erasmus University Rotterdam, NL.

Is Information ‘Out There’?, Sixth Conference of the Dutch-Flemish Association for Analytic Philosophy, Januari, University of Groningen, NL.

2013

A Comparative Perspective on Rorty and Habermas, 34th Dutch-Flemish Day of Philosophy, August, Eindhoven University of Technology, NL.

Thinking Beyond the Neo-Cartesian Dualism through the Study of Emotions, The Graduate Conference of Theoretical Philosophy, April, University of Groningen, NL.

Other talks

Andere geesten belichaamd, Leidse Studiedag Scepticisme, lecture for highschool students, 10 April 2017, Leonardo college, Leiden, NL.

The Ontogenetic Origins of Content, Workshop on metalanguage, self-reflection, and content, 23 May 2017, Erasmus University Rotterdam, NL.

Linguistic know-how and the Orders of Language, Neurophilosophy reading group, 27 October 2016, Universiteit van Amsterdam, NL.

Andere geesten belichaamd, kroegcollege [pub lecture], 25 april 2016, organised by study association ERA Rotterdam, NL.

Andere geesten belichaamd, guest lecture, 29 februari 2016, Podium O950, MIR Rotterdam, NL.

Andere geesten belichaamd, Studiedag Scepticisme ICLON (nascholing middelbare school-docenten) [refresher course for high school teachers], 20 November 2015, University of Leiden, NL.

Content in Radical Enactivism, OZSW Study Group Enactivism, 30 September 2015, University of Antwerp, BE.

Getting Real about Language: Towards an Enactivist Perspective of Linguistic Cognition, Lunchtime Seminar, 7 May 2015, Erasmus University Rotterdam, NL.

Het geleefde lichaam in de filosofie van Jan Patočka [The lived body in the philosophy of Jan Patočka], ERA studytrip, 5 April 2015, Praag, CZ.