From Communication to Presence: Cognition, Emotions and Culture towards the Ultimate Communicative Experience. Festschrift in honor of Luigi Anolli



48

G. Riva, M.T. Anguera, B.K. Wiederhold and F. Mantovani (Eds.)

From Communication to Presence: Cognition, Emotions and Culture towards the
Ultimate Communicative Experience.
Festschrift in honor of Luigi Anolli

IOS Press, Amsterdam, 2006, (c) All rights reserved - http://www.emergingcommunication.com

3.1 Introduction

In this chapter we will discuss the concepts of “presence” (Inner Presence) and
“social presence” (Co-presence) within a cognitive and ecological perspective.
Specifically, we claim that the concepts of “presence” and “social presence” are the
possible links between self, action, communication and culture.

To support this vision, in the first section of the chapter we will provide a capsule
view of Heidegger’s work by examining the two main features of the Heideggerian
concept of “being”: spatiality and being with. We argue that different visions from
social and cognitive sciences -
Situated Cognition, Embodied Cognition, Enactive
Approach, Situated Simulation, Covert Imitation
- and discoveries from neuroscience
-
Mirror and Canonical Neurons - have many contact points with this view.

These data suggest that our conceptual system dynamically produces contextualized
representations (simulations) that support grounded action in different situations. This
is allowed by a common coding - the motor code - shared by perception, action and
concepts. This common coding also allows the subject for natively recognizing
actions done by other beings within the phenomenological contents.

However, this picture has some holes in it: if perception, action and concepts share
the same language how can we differentiate between them. In particular how can we
distinguish between a perceived action, a planned or an executed one?

More, even if imitation has frequently been proposed as the central mechanism
mediating the reproduction, spread, intergenerational transmission and stabilization
of human cultural forms, our imitation is selective. How and why do we imitate?
Finally, developmental psychology clearly shows that our simulative abilities are not
the same in the different phases of our life. How and why do they evolve?

In this chapter we suggest that a psychology of presence is a possible answer to
these questions. In our vision “Presence” and “Social Presence” have a simple but
critical role in our everyday experience: the control of agency and social interaction
through the unconscious separation of both “internal” and “external”, and “self” and
“other”. Finally, implications of this position for communication and cultural studies
are discussed by way of conclusion.

3.2 “Being-in-the-world-with”: the Vision of Heidegger

The German philosopher Martin Heidegger, (born Sept. 26, 1889; dead May 26,
1976) was one of the most significant thinkers of the 20th century. His main interest
was to analyze the issue of “being” [Dasein], that is, to make sense of our capacity to
make sense of things [1].

In colloquial German “Dasein” (“there” [Da] + “Being” [Sein]) means “everyday
human existence.” Using this expression Heidegger underlines that a human being
cannot be taken into account except as being an existent in the middle of a world
amongst other things and other beings [2]. Specifically, in the book “
Being and
Time
” Heidegger underlines the following structural (ontological) features of the
being [1]:

-   Spatiality: the space is not around us but within us;

-   Being with: we exist not on our own terms, but only in reference to others.



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