Files

643943.pdf (231.39 KB)

Document type

Article

Version

Accepted version

Publication date

2013

All rights reserved

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/2445/164782

Positing a space mirror mechanism: intentional understanding without action?

Journal Title

Authors

Director/Tutor

Additional contribution

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Abstract

Recent evidence regarding a novel functionality of the mirror neuron system (MNS), a so-called 'space mirror mechanism', seems to reinforce the central role of the MNS in social cognition. According to the space mirror hypothesis, neural mirroring accounts for understanding not just what an observed agent is doing, but also the range of potential actions that a suitably located object affords an observed agent in the absence of any motor behaviour. This paper aims to show that the advocate of this space mirror hypothesis faces a crippling dilemma. Either what observed agents can do remains underdetermined by space mirror representations, and no proper understanding of action potentiality is gained; or, if it is just understanding of potential motor acts that is achieved through the sensorimotor representations generated by shared object-related affordances, the very explanatory role of space mirroring is compromised.

Related resource

Subject

Teoria de l'acció, Neurones mirall, Neurociència cognitiva

Subject (English)

Action theory, Mirror neurons, Cognitive neuroscience

Citation

Collections

Articles publicats en revistes (Filosofia)

Citation

TORIBIO MATEAS, Josefa. Positing a space mirror mechanism: intentional understanding without action?. Journal of Consciousness Studies. 2013. Vol. 20, num. 5-6, pags. 171-193. ISSN 1355-8250. [consulted: 16 of October of 2026]. Available at: https://hdl.handle.net/2445/164782

Export metadata

JSON - METS

Share record