How can symbols have meaning for a subject? Foundations of Understanding argues that this is the key question to ask about intentionality, or meaningful thought. It thus offers an alternative to currently popular linguistic models of intentionality, whose inadequacies are examined: the goal should be to explain, not how symbols, mental or otherwise, can refer to or ‘mean’ states of affairs in the external world, but how they can mean something to us, the users. The essence of intentionality is shown to be conscious understanding, the roots of which lie in experiences of embodiment and goal-directed action. A developmental path is traced from a foundation of conscious understanding in the ability to perform basic actions, through the understanding of the concept of an objective, external world, to the understanding of language and abstract symbols. The work is interdisciplinary: data from the neurosciences and cognitive psychology, and the perspectives of phenomenologists such as Merleau-Ponty, are combined with traditional philosophical analysis. The book includes a chapter on the nature of conscious qualitative experience and its neural correlates. (Series A)
2023. Virtual Reality and the Customer Journey. In Artificial Intelligence along the Customer Journey, ► pp. 105 ff.
Hamdo, Manhal
2023. The Nature of Epistemic Intuition. In Epistemic Thought Experiments and Intuitions [Philosophical Studies Series, 150], ► pp. 43 ff.
Marks, David F.
2023. The Action Cycle Theory of Perception and Mental Imagery. Vision 7:1 ► pp. 12 ff.
Alzayat, Ayman & Seung Hwan (Mark) Lee
2021. Virtual products as an extension of my body: Exploring hedonic and utilitarian shopping value in a virtual reality retail environment. Journal of Business Research 130 ► pp. 348 ff.
Schweitzer, Fiona, Maximilian Palmié & Oliver Gassmann
2018. Beyond listening: the distinct effects of proactive versus responsive customer orientation on the reduction of uncertainties at the fuzzy front end of innovation. R&D Management 48:5 ► pp. 534 ff.
Löhr, Guido
2017. Abstract concepts, compositionality, and the contextualism-invariantism debate. Philosophical Psychology 30:6 ► pp. 689 ff.
Newton, Natika W.
2017. Understanding and Self-Organization. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience 11
Winkelman, Michael J.
2017. The Mechanisms of Psychedelic Visionary Experiences: Hypotheses from Evolutionary Psychology. Frontiers in Neuroscience 11
Yufik, Yan M. & Karl Friston
2016. Life and Understanding: The Origins of “Understanding” in Self-Organizing Nervous Systems. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience 10
Zhu, Chunshen & Junfeng Zhang
2016. Dancing with Ideology: Grammatical Metaphor and Identity Presentation in Translation. Meta 60:3 ► pp. 387 ff.
Winkelman, Michael James
2015. Biogenetic Structural Perspectives on Shamanism and Raves. In Exploring Psychedelic Trance and Electronic Dance Music in Modern Culture, ► pp. 1 ff.
SERGEEVA, NATALYA
2014. EMPLOYEES AND THE INNOVATIVE IDEA CONTRIBUTION PROCESS: CLARIFYING INDIVIDUAL AND CONTEXTUAL CHARACTERISTICS. International Journal of Innovation Management 18:05 ► pp. 1450036 ff.
Yufik, Yan
2014. Situational Awareness, Sensemaking, and Situation Understanding in Cyber Warfare. In Cybersecurity Systems for Human Cognition Augmentation [Advances in Information Security, 61], ► pp. 1 ff.
Dempsey, Liam P. & Itay Shani
2013. Stressing the Flesh: In Defense of Strong Embodied Cognition. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 86:3 ► pp. 590 ff.
Sundararajan, Louise
2010. Two Flavors of Aesthetic Tasting: Rasa and Savoring a Cross-Cultural Study with Implications for Psychology of Emotion. Review of General Psychology 14:1 ► pp. 22 ff.
Steiger, David M. & Natalie M. Steiger
2007. 2007 40th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'07), ► pp. 204a ff.
Lethin, Anton
2006. Explorations into the Neurological Basis of our Sense of Self. The Clinical Journal of the International Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis 16:1 ► pp. 129 ff.
Lethin, Anton
2008. Anticipating sensitizes the body. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 7:2 ► pp. 279 ff.
Gibbs, Jr, Raymond W.
2005. Embodiment and Cognitive Science,
Niedenthal, Paula M., Lawrence W. Barsalou, Piotr Winkielman, Silvia Krauth-Gruber & François Ric
2005. Embodiment in Attitudes, Social Perception, and Emotion. Personality and Social Psychology Review 9:3 ► pp. 184 ff.
Overskeid, Geir
2005. Empirically Understanding Understanding can Make Problems go Away: The Case of the Chinese Room. The Psychological Record 55:4 ► pp. 595 ff.
Solomon, Karen Olseth & Lawrence W. Barsalou
2004. Perceptual simulation in property verification. Memory & Cognition 32:2 ► pp. 244 ff.
Winkelman, Michael
2004. Understanding Consciousness Using Systems Approaches and Lexical Universals. Anthropology of Consciousness 15:2 ► pp. 24 ff.
Zhao, Yong, María José Alvarez-Torres, Bryan Smith & Hueyshan Sophia Tan
2004. The Non-Neutrality of Technology: A Theoretical Analysis and Empirical Study of Computer Mediated Communication Technologies. Journal of Educational Computing Research 30:1-2 ► pp. 23 ff.
de Vega, Manuel
2002. Del significado simbólico al significado corpóreo. Estudios de Psicología 23:2 ► pp. 153 ff.
Kulakov, A., G. Stojanov & D. Davcev
2002. Proceedings 2nd International Conference on Development and Learning. ICDL 2002, ► pp. 61 ff.
Newton, Natika
2002. Privileged Access and Merleau-Ponty. In The Visible and the Invisible in the Interplay between Philosophy, Literature and Reality, ► pp. 71 ff.
Ellis, Ralph D.
2001. Implications of Inattentional Blindness for "Enactive'' Theories of Consciousness. Brain and Mind 2:3 ► pp. 297 ff.
Ellis, Ralph D.
2006. Phenomenology-Friendly Neuroscience: The Return To Merleau-Ponty As Psychologist. Human Studies 29:1 ► pp. 33 ff.
Ellis, Ralph D.
2013. Neuroscience as a Human Science: Integrating Phenomenology and Empiricism in the Study of Action and Consciousness. Human Studies 36:4 ► pp. 491 ff.
Ellis, Ralph D.
2015. Reduction versus Emergence. In The Encyclopedia of Clinical Psychology, ► pp. 1 ff.
Zhao, Yong, Bryan Smith & Hueyshan Sophia Tan
2000. The Non-Neutrality of Technology. In Research in Technology and Second Language Learning, ► pp. 281 ff.
Barsalou, Lawrence W.
1999. Language comprehension: Archival memory or preparation for situated action?. Discourse Processes 28:1 ► pp. 61 ff.
Glenberg, Arthur M. & David A. Robertson
1999. Indexical understanding of instructions. Discourse Processes 28:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Steiger, David M.
1998. Enhancing User Understanding in a Decision Support System: A Theoretical Basis and Framework. Journal of Management Information Systems 15:2 ► pp. 199 ff.
Steiger, David M.
2010. Decision Support as Knowledge Creation. International Journal of Business Intelligence Research 1:1 ► pp. 29 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 13 march 2026. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.
