Interactivism is a metaphysical and theoretical approach to understanding phenomena of biology, mind, persons, and social reality. At the metaphysical level, it emphasizes a strict naturalism and a process metaphysics as essential to the understanding of emergence. Biological issues that have been addressed include the evolution of the biosphere and the nature and emergence of biological function. The term interactivism derives from the model of representation as emergent in interactive systems. This is a version of a pragmatist model, with kinship to Peirce and Piaget. Multiple phenomena of the mind and persons are addressed, including motivation, memory, learning, rationality, emotions, consciousness, sociality, language, ethics, and the emergence of social realities. These models have strong relevance for studies of central nervous system functioning and for the creation of artificial agents: cognitive robots.
