ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the normative dimensions of human cognition through ecological, enactive, and Wittgensteinian perspectives. It examines the claim, popular in 4e approaches, that meaning, intentionality, and skill emerge from participation in social practices. It first argues, based on Brandom’s work, that recognition is a mechanism through which individuals become participants in social practices. It then uses the notion of participatory sense-making to reconceptualize Brandom’s conception of recognition as a dialectical process of mutual transformation and identity maintenance. This chapter critiques reductive models of recognition and proposes a virtual, affective openness to implicated interaction as a normatively significant stance. This enriched understanding of recognition sheds light on the dynamic constitution of social normativity and its relevance for intelligibility, ethical relations, and the possibility of social change.
