Speaking with Andrea Hiott was very much akin to moving through a dynamic constellation of ideas and watching that constellation shapeshift in real time. Hers is an intellect that dwells in paradox, that embraces movement, and that does not shy away from friction. Almost immediately, one is struck by her unbounded curiosity and refreshing humility, as well as the astonishing breadth of her thinking. She is one of those thinkers who pushes us to hear familiar words anew, and reengage with descriptions of our world in a generative, non-reductive way. As you’ll hear in the beginning of the conversation, her work stretches across phenomenology, neuroscience, 4E cognitive science, urban planning, care ethics, and more, and she has elaborated a constellatory approach to thinking and being, which we explore, and at times enact, throughout our conversation.
An important concept in Andrea’s work is what she calls way-making, which, in many respects, is a kindred approach to the enactive style of thinking. One of the central concerns in the way-making modality is how we can be specific and rigorous in our sense-making, while also keeping the horizon open and emergent. We need both: science that is rigorous about its protocol, agents who are clear about their positions and responsibility, and a space that is beyond representation and assessments, as well as a self-understanding that is inseparable from the environment.
Way-making has a great deal to do with how we use our attention and what affordances that attention allows in our environments, and therefore with what matters to us and how we care. For her, caring is inseparable from movement. As she says, “the body mattering is caring towards,” and “the mattering is the body coming into being.” In this context, real power comes not from the sort of representational clout we witness in the world everyday, but from the very precariousness that generates our conditions for sentience. So, she asks throughout the conversation, what does it mean to live in a world that attacks this precariousness? How can we persist in a world in which multiple forms of ‘caring towards’ are in vehement competition with each other? How can we generate regularities and affordances that encourage and amplify caring?
The conversation ends on a hopeful note, and not because we don’t acknowledge the many perversions of power in our world today, but because, as Andrea says, we are forever bound to each other, through our mattering and caring, and moments of disorientation are in fact opportunities for new forms of communication and agency.
***
Andrea Hiott is a philosopher, author, and educator whose work moves across neuroscience, philosophy of mind, and embodied cognition. She has been working towards the navigational approach to cognition since 2017. She holds advanced degrees in philosophy and neuroscience from the University of Georgia, Humboldt Universität Berlin, and the Berlin School of Mind and Brain, and is currently a graduate researcher in the philosophy faculty (Phenomenology and Psychiatry) at Universität Heidelberg. Her thesis presents the navigational approach. She is a part-time professor at various schools and universities, serves on the board for three foundations, and has worked as a ghostwriter for over a decade. Andrea is also a ‘philosopher founder’ of Making Ways and the Love & Philosophy project. Making Ways is a multimedia care collective and international community dedicated to philosophical inquiry across the usual bounds between disciplines, institutions, and ways of living.
***
If you'd like to support our work, including this podcast, you can make a donation to Mind & Life Europe or join our MLE Friends community. Thank you for your support!
All of our music is courtesy of Blue Dot Sessions.
","author_name":"Mind & Life Europe"}