Marek reviewed The Embodied Mind by Francisco Varela
A classic. Transformative in more ways than one.
5 stars
This is a difficult text, one that rather relentlessly strips away various assumptions and groundings that are taken as given in modern Western life, and replaces them with a scientifically infused awareness and appreciation for the dynamism and groundlessness of mind, world, and experience.
Demanding, but repays effort. One of several seminal texts for a whole approach to cognitive science, but considered first among them.
This is a revised edition, but the revisions are very light - the biggest changes are three new introductions to the text, including two by the surviving authors.
I was re-reading this as part of an online seminar series working through it chapter by chapter.