a philosophy of stroke - 3

Hi Nina, Daniele, Sophia, et al.,

Nina you wrote in your reply to my article on ‘a philosophy of stroke’ (Enable Me, 02/09/26): “I remember needing to show that I was ‘still here’ even though it may not have appeared that way to on lookers after my stroke.” The phrase, “still here,” may implicate an assumption by some unaffected neurologically by stroke that a sufficient totality of functional operation will suffice to bring us back to full engagement. In other words, there may be a lack in our common vocabulary which defers to an assumption when we are addressed – ‘are you still with us’. Yet, the writing in Enable Me has gone beyond such assumptions, and this is interesting and unique, worthy not only of a neuropsychology but of its own philosophy actively inventing new life.

Rather than just maintaining a functional presence, the writing in Enable Me sustains what cognitive neuroscientist, Andy Clark, might call, “wild cognition [from that] organ exquisitely geared to the production of actions, laid out in local space and real time”; as vividly demonstrated by Daniele, yesterday (Enable Me, 03/09/26). Rather than survivors “still here,” we are, as the title of Clark’s book declares, Being There: Putting Brain, Body and World Together Again – differently.

John

Reference

Clark, A. (1997). Being There: Putting Brain, Body and World Together Again. MIT Press: England.