Understanding affordances: history and contemporary development of Gibson’s central concept

• Main Authors: Dobromir G. Dotov, Lin Nie, Matthieu M. de Wit
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centre for Philosophical Research 2012-12-01
• Series: Avant: Journal of Philosophical-Interdisciplinary Vanguard
• Subjects: affordance; Gibson; perception-action; dynamical systems theory; phenomenology
• Online Access: http://avant.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/DDLNMW-Understanding-affordances.pdf

Gibson developed the affordance concept to complement his theory of direct perception that stands in sharp contrast with the prevalent inferential theories of perception. A comparison of the two approaches shows that the distinction between them also has an ontological aspect. We trace the history and newer formalizations of the notion of affordance and discuss some competing opinions on its scope. Next, empirical work on the affordance concept is reviewed in brief and the relevance of dynamical systems theory to affordance research is demonstrated. Finally, the striking but often neglected convergence of the ideas of Gibson and those of certain Continental philosophers is discussed.