Psychocorporeal selfhood, practical intelligence, and adaptive autonomy

Abstract

How must selfhood be construed given that people are vulnerable to identity crises? How must agency be construed given that some people skirt potential identity crises? After explaining what an identity crisis is, I examine Charles Taylor’s and David Velleman’s accounts of identity, agency, and identity crises. In the spirit of Merleau-Ponty’s account of habit and J. J. Gibson’s account of the relation between corporeity and affordances, I sketch an account of practical intelligence that includes four psychocorporeal components - psychocorporeal virtue, psychocorporeal cognition, psychocorporeal versatility, and psychocorporeal memory. I conclude by connecting my position to Aristotle’s views about practical understanding and by arguing that both Taylor and Velleman have reason to embrace my position.