Sensorimotor Origins of Universal Physics

July 27th, 2006 Fred McVittie Posted in Jones, Stephen, Metaphor, Nunez, Rafael, Physics, Universals |

“Experiential models of the world are based on sensorimotor and visual experiences with environments, and form in individual minds as the associated bodies and senses experience their worlds. Formal models consist of axioms expressed in a formal language, together with mathematical rules to infer conclusions from them. ” (Mark, 1996)

Universal Physics describes an experiential model of the world based on sensorimoter experience, particularly the experiences provided by the visual and the proprioceptive senses. This model is partly ‘hard wired’ through evolutionary processes, and partly developed through the body’s experiencing of the world. This is in contrast with Rational Physics, which describes a formal model of the world, this model being axiomatic and produced through formal non-embodied languages, particularly mathematics. Although, as Nunez & Lakoff (2000), and Jones (1983) point out, the most formal and apparently abstract languages of science, including that of ‘pure maths’ are deeply embodied through metaphorical mapping of sensorimotor experience, so this contrast is somewhat illusory.