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Thomas Netland

University of Agder, Department of Religion, Philosophy and History, Faculty Member

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Ph.D. in philosophy from NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology).
Address: Trondheim, Sor-Trondelag Fylke, Norway

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The University of Texas at Austin

University of Oxford

Marymount University

Ruben López-Cano

Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya

Fordham University

Shaun Gallagher

University of Memphis

Louis de Saussure

University of Neuchâtel

Armando Marques-Guedes

UNL - New University of Lisbon

New York University

Macquarie University

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Books by Thomas Netland

Knowing our ways about in the world: Philosophical perspectives on practical knowledge

Scandinavian University Press, 2023

This licence provides permission to copy or redistribute the material in any medium or format, an... more This licence provides permission to copy or redistribute the material in any medium or format, and to remix, transform or build upon the material for any purpose, including commercially. These freedoms are granted under the following terms: you must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the licence and indicate if changes have been made to the material. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the licence permits. The licensor cannot revoke the freedoms granted by this

Subjectivity, nature, existence: Foundational issues for enactive phenomenology

Doctoral theses at NTNU, 2023

This thesis explores and discusses foundational issues concerning the relationship between phenom... more This thesis explores and discusses foundational issues concerning the relationship between phenomenological philosophy and the enactive approach to cognitive science, with the aim of clarifying, developing, and promoting the project of enactive phenomenology. This project is framed by three general ideas: 1) that the sciences of mind need a phenomenological grounding, 2) that the enactive approach is the currently most promising attempt to provide mind science with such a grounding, and 3) that this attempt involves both a naturalization of phenomenology and a phenomenologization of the concept of nature. More specifically, enactive phenomenology is the project of pursuing mutually illuminative exchanges between, on the one hand, phenomenological investigations of the structures of lived experience and embodied existence and, on the other, scientific accounts of mind and life – in particular those framed by theories of biological self-organization. The thesis consists of two parts. Part one is an introductory essay that seeks to clarify some of enactive phenomenology’s overarching philosophical commitments by tracing some of its historical roots. Part two is a compilation of four articles, each of which intervenes in a different contemporary debate relevant to the dissertation’s project.

Papers by Thomas Netland

8. Reflection in communicative jazz action

Scandinavian University Press eBooks, Dec 7, 2023

Art and linguistic bodies: a transformative view

Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, Nov 8, 2023

This article takes its point of departure from the second (embodied) linguistic turn represented ... more This article takes its point of departure from the second (embodied) linguistic turn represented by the enactivist notion of humans as linguistic bodies, using resources from Hans Georg Gadamer in order to propose a view of the relation between art and everyday experience as one of symbolic transformation. Conceiving art as a form of linguistic phenomenon wherein one can engage in original situations of communication, this view rejects both autonomist and direct continuity views of the art-everyday relation. We start by situating the idea of linguistic bodies within the enactive approach, spelling out relevant aspects concerning the significance of language for human life and perception (Sect. 2). Then we embark on a discussion of aspects of Shaun Gallagher's and Alva Noë's enactivist perspectives on art experience, highlighting places where their views align with and depart from ours (Sect. 3). The last two sections aim to lay out the transformative view in more detail, proposing a pluralistic understanding of art media and a view of art and art experience as modes of ideational, embodied thought (Sects. 4 and 5).

Reflection in communicative jazz action

Scandinavian University Press, 2023

This chapter aims to deepen Donald Schön's insight about jazz playing as an example of what he ca... more This chapter aims to deepen Donald Schön's insight about jazz playing as an example of what he calls "reflection-in-action" (RiA) by situating this notion within the enactive view of humans as linguistic bodies. Our main claim is that the knowledge or skills displayed by expert jazz musicians must be understood as aural and communicative in nature. After presenting the notions of RiA and linguistic bodies, we develop our view through a critical discussion of four statements from Schön's passage on jazz musicianship, before wrapping up and clarifying the position we are advocating. This way, we suggest a revised version of Schön's concept, which we call "reflection in communicative jazz action.

Art and linguistic bodies: a transformative view

Phenomenology and the cognitive sciences, 2023

This article takes its point of departure from the second (embodied) linguistic turn represented ... more This article takes its point of departure from the second (embodied) linguistic turn represented by the enactivist notion of humans as linguistic bodies, using resources from Hans Georg Gadamer in order to propose a view of the relation between art and everyday experience as one of symbolic transformation. Conceiving art as a form of linguistic phenomenon wherein one can engage in original situations of communication, this view rejects both autonomist and direct continuity views of the art-everyday relation. We start by situating the idea of linguistic bodies within the enactive approach, spelling out relevant aspects concerning the significance of language for human life and perception (Sect. 2). Then we embark on a discussion of aspects of Shaun Gallagher's and Alva Noë's enactivist perspectives on art experience, highlighting places where their views align with and depart from ours (Sect. 3). The last two sections aim to lay out the transformative view in more detail, proposing a pluralistic understanding of art media and a view of art and art experience as modes of ideational, embodied thought (Sects. 4 and 5).

The lived, living, and behavioral sense of perception: an enactive-phenomenological response to a sensorimotor critique

Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences

With Jan Degenaar and Kevin O’Regan’s (D&O) critique of (what they call) ‘autopoietic enactivism’... more With Jan Degenaar and Kevin O’Regan’s (D&O) critique of (what they call) ‘autopoietic enactivism’ as point of departure, this article seeks to revisit, refine, and develop phenomenology’s significance for the enactive view. Arguing that D&O’s ‘sensorimotor theory’ fails to do justice to perceptual meaning, the article unfolds by (1) connecting this meaning to the notion of enaction as a meaningful co-definition of perceiver and perceived, (2) recounting phenomenological reasons for conceiving of the perceiving subject as a living body, and (3) showing how the phenomenological perspective does a better job at fulfilling D&O’s requirement for grounding notions of mentality in ‘outer’ criteria than they do. The picture that thus emerges is one of perceptual meaning as an integration of lived, living, and behavioral aspects – a structure of behavior that cannot be captured by appeal to sensorimotor capacities alone but that is adequately illuminated by the enactive notion of adaptive au...

Enacting a Jazz Beat: Temporality in Sonic Environment and Symbolic Communication

by Mattias Solli and Thomas Netland

British Journal of Aesthetics, 2021

What does it mean to enact a jazz beat as a creative performer? This article offers a critical re... more What does it mean to enact a jazz beat as a creative performer? This article offers a critical reading of Iyer's much-cited theory on rhythmic enaction. We locate the sonic environment approach in Iyer's theory, and criticize him for advancing a one-to-one relationship between everyday perception and full-fledged aural competence of jazz musicians, and for comparing the latter with non-symbolic behaviour of non-human organisms. As an alternative, we suggest a Merleau-Pontyinspired concept of rhythmic enaction, which we call the enactive communicative approach. Key to this approach is the fact that jazz musicians play by ear, and that the beat emerges because of reciprocal, real-time aural communication. From this perspective, we outline the temporality of a jazz beat as a holistic and dialectical temporal structure. Throughout the discussions, we use John Coltrane's 'Trane's Slo Blues' as a point of reference.

Projection or encounter? Investigating Hans Jonas' case for natural teleology

by Sigurd Hverven and Thomas Netland

Phenomenology and the cognitive sciences, 2021

This article discusses Hans Jonas’ argument for teleology in living organisms, in light of recent... more This article discusses Hans Jonas’ argument for teleology in living organisms, in light of recently raised concerns over enactivism’s “Jonasian turn.” Drawing on textual resources rarely discussed in contemporary enactivist literature on Jonas’ philosophy, we reconstruct five core ideas of his thinking: 1) That natural science’s rejection of teleology is methodological rather than ontological, and thus not a proof of its nonexistence; 2) that denial of the reality of teleology amounts to a performative self-contradiction; 3) that the fact of evolution makes it implausible that only humans actualize purpose; 4) that the concept of metabolism delimits and gestures towards beings performing purposive activity; and 5) that concrete encounters with living organisms are indispensable for the judgment that they are purposive. Lastly, we draw attention to how Jonas’ understanding of teleology and inwardness in nonhuman life in terms of degrees of identity with human life poses a problem for his view. In this way, we hope to clarify what Jonas, as an important source of inspiration for the enactivist project, is proposing.

The Living Transcendental - An Integrationist View of Naturalized Phenomenology

Frontiers in Psychology, 2020

In this article I take on the “Transcendentalist Challenge” to naturalized phenomenology, highlig... more In this article I take on the “Transcendentalist Challenge” to naturalized phenomenology, highlighting how the ontological and methodological commitments of Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy point in the direction of an integration of the transcendental and the scientific, thus making room for a productive exchange between philosophy and psychological science when it comes to understanding consciousness and its place in nature. Discussing various conceptions of naturalized phenomenology, I argue that what I call an “Integrationist View” is required if we are to make sense of the possibility of productive exchange between phenomenology and the sciences. My main argument is that if we conceive of consciousness as a structure of behavior ontologically prior to the distinctions between objectivity and subjectivity and third- and first-person perspectives, we arrive at a view of the transcendental as not essentially separate from the domain of science, but rather as contingent organizational norms of empirical nature that are best illuminated through a dialectical exchange between phenomenological and scientific approaches. I end by showing how Merleau-Ponty’s engagement with the “Schneider case” in an example of such an integration.

Hverdagsvirkelighet og ting i seg selv

Norsk filosofisk tidsskrift, 2019

Hverdagsvirkelighet og ting i seg selv En kommentar til Retrieving Realism (2015) Everyday Realit... more Hverdagsvirkelighet og ting i seg selv En kommentar til Retrieving Realism (2015) Everyday Reality and Things-in-Themselves A Comment on Retrieving Realism (2015) Thomas Netland Ph.D.-stipendiat, Institutt for Filosofi og Religionsvitenskap, NTNU Netland startet som doktorgradsstipendiat ved Institutt for filosofi og religionsvitenskap, NTNU høsten 2018, med et prosjekt om fenomenologiens metodologiske rolle i nyere «enactivist»-tilnaerminger til kognisjonsvitenskap. I tillegg til fenomenologi og kognisjonsvitenskap, inkluderer hans interesseområder blant annet hverdagsspråkfilosofi, epistemologi og sinnsfilosofi.

Introduksjon: fenomenologiens aktualitet

Norsk filosofisk tidsskrift, 2019

Situating the Intellect: McDowell, Dreyfus, and Merleau-Ponty on Mindedness and Embodiment

Knowing our ways about in the world: Philosophical perspectives on practical knowledge

Scandinavian University Press, 2023

This licence provides permission to copy or redistribute the material in any medium or format, an... more This licence provides permission to copy or redistribute the material in any medium or format, and to remix, transform or build upon the material for any purpose, including commercially. These freedoms are granted under the following terms: you must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the licence and indicate if changes have been made to the material. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the licence permits. The licensor cannot revoke the freedoms granted by this

Subjectivity, nature, existence: Foundational issues for enactive phenomenology

Doctoral theses at NTNU, 2023

This thesis explores and discusses foundational issues concerning the relationship between phenom... more This thesis explores and discusses foundational issues concerning the relationship between phenomenological philosophy and the enactive approach to cognitive science, with the aim of clarifying, developing, and promoting the project of enactive phenomenology. This project is framed by three general ideas: 1) that the sciences of mind need a phenomenological grounding, 2) that the enactive approach is the currently most promising attempt to provide mind science with such a grounding, and 3) that this attempt involves both a naturalization of phenomenology and a phenomenologization of the concept of nature. More specifically, enactive phenomenology is the project of pursuing mutually illuminative exchanges between, on the one hand, phenomenological investigations of the structures of lived experience and embodied existence and, on the other, scientific accounts of mind and life – in particular those framed by theories of biological self-organization. The thesis consists of two parts. Part one is an introductory essay that seeks to clarify some of enactive phenomenology’s overarching philosophical commitments by tracing some of its historical roots. Part two is a compilation of four articles, each of which intervenes in a different contemporary debate relevant to the dissertation’s project.

8. Reflection in communicative jazz action

Scandinavian University Press eBooks, Dec 7, 2023

Art and linguistic bodies: a transformative view

Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, Nov 8, 2023

This article takes its point of departure from the second (embodied) linguistic turn represented ... more This article takes its point of departure from the second (embodied) linguistic turn represented by the enactivist notion of humans as linguistic bodies, using resources from Hans Georg Gadamer in order to propose a view of the relation between art and everyday experience as one of symbolic transformation. Conceiving art as a form of linguistic phenomenon wherein one can engage in original situations of communication, this view rejects both autonomist and direct continuity views of the art-everyday relation. We start by situating the idea of linguistic bodies within the enactive approach, spelling out relevant aspects concerning the significance of language for human life and perception (Sect. 2). Then we embark on a discussion of aspects of Shaun Gallagher's and Alva Noë's enactivist perspectives on art experience, highlighting places where their views align with and depart from ours (Sect. 3). The last two sections aim to lay out the transformative view in more detail, proposing a pluralistic understanding of art media and a view of art and art experience as modes of ideational, embodied thought (Sects. 4 and 5).

Reflection in communicative jazz action

Scandinavian University Press, 2023

This chapter aims to deepen Donald Schön's insight about jazz playing as an example of what he ca... more This chapter aims to deepen Donald Schön's insight about jazz playing as an example of what he calls "reflection-in-action" (RiA) by situating this notion within the enactive view of humans as linguistic bodies. Our main claim is that the knowledge or skills displayed by expert jazz musicians must be understood as aural and communicative in nature. After presenting the notions of RiA and linguistic bodies, we develop our view through a critical discussion of four statements from Schön's passage on jazz musicianship, before wrapping up and clarifying the position we are advocating. This way, we suggest a revised version of Schön's concept, which we call "reflection in communicative jazz action.

Art and linguistic bodies: a transformative view

Phenomenology and the cognitive sciences, 2023

This article takes its point of departure from the second (embodied) linguistic turn represented ... more This article takes its point of departure from the second (embodied) linguistic turn represented by the enactivist notion of humans as linguistic bodies, using resources from Hans Georg Gadamer in order to propose a view of the relation between art and everyday experience as one of symbolic transformation. Conceiving art as a form of linguistic phenomenon wherein one can engage in original situations of communication, this view rejects both autonomist and direct continuity views of the art-everyday relation. We start by situating the idea of linguistic bodies within the enactive approach, spelling out relevant aspects concerning the significance of language for human life and perception (Sect. 2). Then we embark on a discussion of aspects of Shaun Gallagher's and Alva Noë's enactivist perspectives on art experience, highlighting places where their views align with and depart from ours (Sect. 3). The last two sections aim to lay out the transformative view in more detail, proposing a pluralistic understanding of art media and a view of art and art experience as modes of ideational, embodied thought (Sects. 4 and 5).

The lived, living, and behavioral sense of perception: an enactive-phenomenological response to a sensorimotor critique

Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences

With Jan Degenaar and Kevin O’Regan’s (D&O) critique of (what they call) ‘autopoietic enactivism’... more With Jan Degenaar and Kevin O’Regan’s (D&O) critique of (what they call) ‘autopoietic enactivism’ as point of departure, this article seeks to revisit, refine, and develop phenomenology’s significance for the enactive view. Arguing that D&O’s ‘sensorimotor theory’ fails to do justice to perceptual meaning, the article unfolds by (1) connecting this meaning to the notion of enaction as a meaningful co-definition of perceiver and perceived, (2) recounting phenomenological reasons for conceiving of the perceiving subject as a living body, and (3) showing how the phenomenological perspective does a better job at fulfilling D&O’s requirement for grounding notions of mentality in ‘outer’ criteria than they do. The picture that thus emerges is one of perceptual meaning as an integration of lived, living, and behavioral aspects – a structure of behavior that cannot be captured by appeal to sensorimotor capacities alone but that is adequately illuminated by the enactive notion of adaptive au...

Enacting a Jazz Beat: Temporality in Sonic Environment and Symbolic Communication

by Mattias Solli and Thomas Netland

British Journal of Aesthetics, 2021

What does it mean to enact a jazz beat as a creative performer? This article offers a critical re... more What does it mean to enact a jazz beat as a creative performer? This article offers a critical reading of Iyer's much-cited theory on rhythmic enaction. We locate the sonic environment approach in Iyer's theory, and criticize him for advancing a one-to-one relationship between everyday perception and full-fledged aural competence of jazz musicians, and for comparing the latter with non-symbolic behaviour of non-human organisms. As an alternative, we suggest a Merleau-Pontyinspired concept of rhythmic enaction, which we call the enactive communicative approach. Key to this approach is the fact that jazz musicians play by ear, and that the beat emerges because of reciprocal, real-time aural communication. From this perspective, we outline the temporality of a jazz beat as a holistic and dialectical temporal structure. Throughout the discussions, we use John Coltrane's 'Trane's Slo Blues' as a point of reference.

Projection or encounter? Investigating Hans Jonas' case for natural teleology

by Sigurd Hverven and Thomas Netland

Phenomenology and the cognitive sciences, 2021

This article discusses Hans Jonas’ argument for teleology in living organisms, in light of recent... more This article discusses Hans Jonas’ argument for teleology in living organisms, in light of recently raised concerns over enactivism’s “Jonasian turn.” Drawing on textual resources rarely discussed in contemporary enactivist literature on Jonas’ philosophy, we reconstruct five core ideas of his thinking: 1) That natural science’s rejection of teleology is methodological rather than ontological, and thus not a proof of its nonexistence; 2) that denial of the reality of teleology amounts to a performative self-contradiction; 3) that the fact of evolution makes it implausible that only humans actualize purpose; 4) that the concept of metabolism delimits and gestures towards beings performing purposive activity; and 5) that concrete encounters with living organisms are indispensable for the judgment that they are purposive. Lastly, we draw attention to how Jonas’ understanding of teleology and inwardness in nonhuman life in terms of degrees of identity with human life poses a problem for his view. In this way, we hope to clarify what Jonas, as an important source of inspiration for the enactivist project, is proposing.

The Living Transcendental - An Integrationist View of Naturalized Phenomenology

Frontiers in Psychology, 2020

In this article I take on the “Transcendentalist Challenge” to naturalized phenomenology, highlig... more In this article I take on the “Transcendentalist Challenge” to naturalized phenomenology, highlighting how the ontological and methodological commitments of Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy point in the direction of an integration of the transcendental and the scientific, thus making room for a productive exchange between philosophy and psychological science when it comes to understanding consciousness and its place in nature. Discussing various conceptions of naturalized phenomenology, I argue that what I call an “Integrationist View” is required if we are to make sense of the possibility of productive exchange between phenomenology and the sciences. My main argument is that if we conceive of consciousness as a structure of behavior ontologically prior to the distinctions between objectivity and subjectivity and third- and first-person perspectives, we arrive at a view of the transcendental as not essentially separate from the domain of science, but rather as contingent organizational norms of empirical nature that are best illuminated through a dialectical exchange between phenomenological and scientific approaches. I end by showing how Merleau-Ponty’s engagement with the “Schneider case” in an example of such an integration.

Hverdagsvirkelighet og ting i seg selv

Norsk filosofisk tidsskrift, 2019

Hverdagsvirkelighet og ting i seg selv En kommentar til Retrieving Realism (2015) Everyday Realit... more Hverdagsvirkelighet og ting i seg selv En kommentar til Retrieving Realism (2015) Everyday Reality and Things-in-Themselves A Comment on Retrieving Realism (2015) Thomas Netland Ph.D.-stipendiat, Institutt for Filosofi og Religionsvitenskap, NTNU Netland startet som doktorgradsstipendiat ved Institutt for filosofi og religionsvitenskap, NTNU høsten 2018, med et prosjekt om fenomenologiens metodologiske rolle i nyere «enactivist»-tilnaerminger til kognisjonsvitenskap. I tillegg til fenomenologi og kognisjonsvitenskap, inkluderer hans interesseområder blant annet hverdagsspråkfilosofi, epistemologi og sinnsfilosofi.

Introduksjon: fenomenologiens aktualitet

Norsk filosofisk tidsskrift, 2019

Situating the Intellect: McDowell, Dreyfus, and Merleau-Ponty on Mindedness and Embodiment