Wolff-Michael Roth
  Lansdowne Professor, Applied Cognitive Science

other pursuits
update: 06-22-2002

My body is the common texture of all objects and it is, at least with respect
to the perceived world, the general instrument of my understanding.
(Merleau-Ponty, 1945, p. 272)

More than any other western philosopher, Maurice Merleau-Ponty emphasized that we know the world as we know it because we have bodies that indissolubly tie together actions and perceptions. Subsequent philosophers such as Mark Johnson provided additional arguments and evidence for the embodied nature of our knowing and learning. I live gardening, cooking, remodelling, and cycling, to take but a few examples, in the same way that I live writing research articles and books. We always know with our body-minds.

Interested visitors might want to read the following articles that I wrote on the topic of body-mind:

Roth, W.-M., & Bowen, G. M. (2001). Of disciplined minds and disciplined bodies. Qualitative Sociology, 24 (4), 459-481.
Roth, W.-M., & Lawless, D. (in press). How does the body get into the mind? Human Studies.

 

The links below allow you to access brief descriptions and photos of other activities that I pursue.

other pursuits   Some information on activities other than researching and teaching, for example, gardening, which I conduct, as other activities in the spirit of enactivism and Zen. The changing nature of my garden: on June 18, 2002, on October 22, 2002, on November 20, 2002, and on April 29, 2003.

gardening  We grow our own vegetables and some fruit and berry on a year-round basis.

cooking  Using ower own vegetables and other organic raw products, I cook and bake everything from scratch.

remodelling  We have now remodelled our home, taking out all the unhealthy wall-to-wall carpet and linoleum floors and installed tiles (ceramic, porcelain, and slate) and wood (parquet and strips).

cycling