“My overall approach to cognition is based on situated, embodied agents. I have introduced the name enactive to designate this approach more precisely. It is comprised of two complementary aspects. (1) On the one hand, the ongoing coupling of the cognitive agent, a permanent coping that is fundamentally mediated by sensory~motor activities. (2) On the other hand, the autonomous activities of the agent whose identity is based on emerging, endogenous configurations (or self-organizing patterns) of neuronal activity.”

Naturalizing Phenomenology: Issues in Contemporary Phenomenology and Cognitive Science, Stanford University Press, Stanford (1997) — Francisco J. Varela