1st Edition

The Autonomous Individual A Praxeological Enactivist Account

By Martin Weichold Copyright 2025
294 Pages
by Routledge

294 Pages
by Routledge

294 Pages
by Routledge

This book advances a new theory of what it means to be an autonomous individual with free will and an authentic self. It synthesizes the new “action turn” from 4E cognitive science with the new “practice turn” from the social sciences to develop a new perspective on our self-interpretation as autonomous individuals. Our entire life is built upon one central foundation: the idea that we human... Read more

1. The Whole Book in One Chapter

2. Explaining Findings about the Human Condition

3. Praxeological Enactivism

4. How Human Organisms Come to Interpret Themselves as Autonomous Individuals

5. Disentangling the Biological Reality, Social Constitution, and Fictional Dimensions of the Idea of the Autonomous Individual

6. Normative Self-Fictionalism

Biography

Martin Weichold is Lecturer in Practical Philosophy at the Institute of Philosophy, Dresden University of Technology, Germany. He is the author of a book on rationality in unreflective action (2015), as well as of numerous articles on enactive cognitive science, practice theory, and ethics.

“This is an impressive and outstanding work in interdisciplinary scholarship on a topic that goes to the heart of what both human individuality and sociality are about. Original, constructive, carefully argued and with a rare devotion to readability.”

Jan-Christoph Marschelke, University of Regensburg, Germany