| The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between self-generated movement and processes of self-learning and self-change. It is hypothesized that: (1) Moving is a primary mode of interacting with a world that we construct through our interactions; (2) self-moving is a way of knowing, which structures both the knowing self and the perception of personal reality; (3) self-change is a process of self-learning which changes the ways in which the self perceives and interacts with personal reality, the nature of which reality changes in a mutually causal relationship with processes of self-change.; This study is a philosophical inquiry in narrative form, informed by my experience as a dancer and a practitioner of The Feldenkrais Method of Somatic Education. Dynamcal Systems Theory is employed as a concept-generating metaphor, by means of which personal experience is interwoven with theoretical approaches to cognition as embodied and environmentally embedded. A conceptual structure is developed in which the cognizing self, as a dynamical system, is defined as an environmentally dependent self-organizing, complex of structural change, absent any central controller. The cognitive domain encompasses all the possible functional interactions, where function is taken to comprise moving, sensing, feeling, and thinking. The integrated nature of function stipulates that: (1) Each component of function represents and postulates the others and function as a whole; (2) all human actions, including processes of abstract thought, are accompanied by distinct patterns of muscular activity. Thus, a change in habitual patterns of movement is reflected in a change in habitual patterns of function, and a change in any other aspect of function is reflected in changes in patterns of movement. The implications for processes of learning and change are discussed, together with potential pedagogical applications. |
