This essay has two goals. The first is to define the behavioristic study of natural events and to classify behavior. The second is to stress the importance of the concept of purpose.

In this article we explore the role of pre-reflective, embodied, and interactive intentionality in joint musical performance. Putting together insights from phenomenology and current theories in cognitive science, we present a case study based on qualitative interviews with the Danish String Quartet (DSQ). A total of 12 hours of interviews was recorded, drawing on ethnography-related methodologies during tours with the DSQ in Denmark and England in 2012 and 2013, focusing mainly on their experience of perception, intentionality, absorption, selfhood and intersubjectivity. The analysis emerging from our data suggests that expert musicians’ experience of collective music-making is rooted in the dynamical patterns of perception and action that co-constitute the sonic environment(s) in which they are embedded, and that the role of attention and other reflective processes should therefore be reconsidered. In putting forward our view on ensemble cohesion, we challenge Keller’s and Seddon and Biasutti’s influential positions, maintaining that the cognitive processes at play in such intersubjective context are grounded in the concrete (inter)actions of the players, and are not reducible to processes and structures ‘in the head’. We argue that this is a significant step forward from more traditional accounts of joint musical performances, which often involve mental representations as principal explanatory tools – downplaying the embodied and participatory dimension of music-making – and we conclude that ensemble performance can take place without attention to either shared goals, or to the other ensemble musicians. We finally suggest that if other researchers want to understand what it is like to play with other musicians then they must shift their focus from Joint Musical Attention (JMA) to Joint Musical Experience (JME), facilitating the development of more ecologically valid models of collective musical performance.

Key words: collective musical performance, embodied knowledge, enactivism, ensemble, joint attention, joint musical experience, joint performance, musical communication, pre-reflective intentionality

Excerpt: In the past decades, literary studies have undergone a series of changes, some of them minor, others quite dramatic or even paradigmatic. For the sceptical observer, however, the question remains: Has there really been a substantial change of literary studies, or has the traditional divide between the hermeneutical mainstream and certain secessionists only been perpetuated? Have new approaches, like reception aesthetics, polysystems theory, empirical studies of literature, constructivism or deconstructivism, really altered literaiy scholars’ views of the subjects, problems, methods, and goals of their discipline?

Throughout the world, educational, political and other social systems are in transition under the combined impact of ecological, demographic, cultural and technological changes. Arguably, there is a special role for Higher Education Institutions HEIs, not only to accommodate themselves to these changes, but also to lead the way in understanding them, to help avoid or ameliorate the painful consequences of change and to contribute to the practical achievement of sustainable development. In order to move towards these goals, it is worthwhile, if not essential, for there to be a reappraisal of the roles and functioning of HEIs. This paper addresses these issues by first briefly summarising the developments that have led to the age of global information and the ‘great debates’ concerning ownership, poverty, literacy and sustainable development that have been engendered. It goes on to consider the special roles of HEIs in understanding what is happening and in promoting constructive action. It argues that is a particularly constructive role for the transdisciplines first and second order cybernetics, sociocybernetics. These latter can fruitfully be a source of order and simplicity amidst disorder and complexity, by providing a ‘lingua franca’, conceptual understandings and hopefully shared values. Particular reference is made to the conversation theory of Gordon Pask. Finally, there is a brief discussion of how developments in e-learning can contribute to ensuring a secure and sustainable future for all.

The paper highlights the need for education that is truly enlightening, an education that provides reflexive awareness of what it is to be a human social actor, one that is empowering for self-determination, one that makes clear the nature of ethical choices, in particular, the choice between, on the one hand, selfless service for the greater good or, on the other hand, the pursuit of short-term personal goals. The paper sets itself in the context of the many problems that are facing humankind globally in the 21st century. The main thesis is that an education for awareness is a necessary part of any putative solutions for dealing with the global problems holistically. I set out in outline the curriculum for such an education. In spirit, the curriculum in itself is not new. What is innovative is the use of concepts from cybernetics to to give form and content to that curriculum.

The article discusses the problems of managing complex ergatic systems containing symbiotic and environment-oriented forms of control and orientation by interacting agents. The difference in the control methods of complex ergatic systems created in the framework of classical and non-classical ergonomics is shown. The conceptual basis of non-classical and post-non-classical ergonomics is presented. The article discusses the prospects of using the concept of enactivism in the conceptual basis of ergatic systems management, which allows implementing a project of continuously updated ergatic environment, which focuses on the processes of continuous updating, operational control and correction of the parameters of the technical and human parts of the system, taking into account the cyclic processes of self-organization in the actor’s environment of the acting subject achievement of business goals. The forms and properties of intelligent entities embodied in organized environments are presented. A number of general definitions of intelligence and intelligent symbionts are embodied in existing ergatic systems that arise in the process of combining artificial and natural self-organizing systems of the environment of activity. The prospects of using conceptual representations of enactivism and constructivism in the management of complex ergatic systems are shown.

Key words: complex systems, non-classical management, post-non-classical management, intelligent symbionts management, ergonomics of immersive environments, enactivism, ergonomics.

Biosemiotics and cybernetics are closely related, yet they are separated by the boundary between life and non-life: biosemiotics is focused on living organisms, whereas cybernetics is applied mostly to non-living artificial devices. However, both classes of systems are agents that perform functions necessary for reaching their goals. I propose to shift the focus of biosemiotics from living organisms to agents in general, which all belong to a pragmasphere or functional universe. Agents should be considered in the context of their hierarchy and origin because their semiosis can be inherited or induced by higher-level agents. To preserve and disseminate their functions, agents use functional information – a set of signs that encode and control their functions. It includes stable memory signs, transient messengers, and natural signs. The origin and evolution of functional information is discussed in terms of transitions between vegetative, animal, and social levels of semiosis, defined by Kull. Vegetative semiosis differs substantially from higher levels of semiosis, because signs are recognized and interpreted via direct code-based matching and are not associated with ideal representations of objects. Thus, I consider a separate classification of signs at the vegetative level that includes proto-icons, proto-indexes, and proto-symbols. Animal and social semiosis are based on classification and modeling of objects, which represent the knowledge of agents about their body (Innenwelt) and environment (Umwelt). Relevance: The paper suggests an agency-based approach to biosemiotics. This approach is related to the interactivism of Mark Bickhard.

Development of artificial cognition, one of the major challenges of contemporary science, requires better understanding of the nature and function of mind. This paper follows the idea of Searle that mind is more than computation, and explores the notion that mind has to be embodied in agency that actively interacts with the outside world. To avoid anthropocentrism and dualism, I develop the concept of agency using principles of biosemiotics, a new discipline that integrates semiotics (science on signification and meaning) with biology. In evolutionary terms, human cognition is an advanced form of agency that emerged from simpler ancestral forms in animals, plants, and single-cell organisms. Agency requires autonomy, informed choice, and goal-directedness. These features imply a capacity of agents to select and execute actions based on internal goals and perceived or stored signs. Agents are always constructed by parental agents, except for the most simple primordial molecular-scale self-reproducing agents, which emerged from non-living components. The origin of life coincides with the emergence of agency and primitive communication, where signs are not yet associated with objects, and instead used to activate or regulate actions directly. The capacity of agents to perceive and categorize objects appeared later in evolution and marks the emergence of minimal mind and advanced communication via object-associated signs. Combining computation with agential features such as goal-directedness, adaptability, and construction may yield artificial systems comparable in some respects to human mind.

Key words: biosemiotics, constructivism, multi-levelness, autonomy, protosemiosis, eusemiosis, autonomous learning

The concept of meaning-making is generating excitement within the museum community, with good reason. Providing an approach to understanding visitor experiences, the paradigm illuminates the visitor’s active role in creating meaning of a museum experience through the context he/she brings, influenced by the factors of self-identity, companions, and leisure motivations. As a result, visitors find personal significance within museums in a range of patterned ways that reflect basic human needs, such as the need for individualism and the need for community. \\The dynamics of visitor meaning-making indicate the importance of fashioning a better “fit” between people and museums in two critical areas: (1) between human meaning-making and museum methods and (2) between human needs and the purpose of museums in society. Each of these areas illuminates a promising direction for a new age of museums in which we actively support, facilitate, and enhance the many kinds of meaning possible in museums and explicitly incorporate human needs into exhibit goals and institutional missions. Examples of successful strategies are discussed.

Constructivist theory has been prominent in recent research on mathematics learning and has provided a basis for recent mathematics education reform efforts. Although constructivism has the potential to inform changes in mathematics teaching, it offers no particular vision of how mathematics should be taught; models of teaching based on constructivism are needed. Data are presented from a whole-class, constructivist teaching experiment in which problems of teaching practice required the teacher/researcher to explore the pedagogical implications of his theoretical (constructivist) perspectives. The analysis of the data led to the development of a model of teacher decision making with respect to mathematical tasks. Central to this model is the creative tension between the teacher’s goals with regard to student learning and his responsibility to be sensitive and responsive to the mathematical thinking of the students.