Symbolische Verkörperung

Reasoning and embodiment are inextricably linked in the medium of symbolic sense. Since all mental processes are based on the living organism's interaction with its environment, human cognition is constitutively embodied. This basic naturalistic insight has to be integrated with the complementary insight that the human symbolic mind is unbounded in its reach. The cultural ability to transcend local situations and to let actions be guided by idealisations and values is a feature of our humanity no less important than embodied action in concrete situations. The unity of this tension has to be conceptualized without falling back into obsolete dualisms, maintains Matthias Jung. Starting in a pragmatistic vein from the primacy of action, he develops a framework for understanding the diversity of human justifactory practices that is sensitive to their embodiment. This leads into an investigation of their relations to the stances associated with comprehensive worldviews and religions.