Enactivism is a theoretical approach to understanding the mind proposed by Gregory Bateson, Humberto Maturana, Francisco Varela, Evan Thompson, and Eleanor Rosch. It emphasizes the way that organisms and the human mind organize themselves by interacting with their environment. It is closely related to situated cognition and embodied cognition, and is presented as an alternative to cognitivism, computationalism and Cartesian dualism.

A book reviewer, Jeremy Trevalyan Burman, in reviewing Consciousness & Emotion, vol 1., concluded:

However, in a review of the book Consciousness & Emotion Book Series 2 edited by Richard Menary, Evan Thompson, the book reviewer, stated the view:

At a fundamental level, enactivism is anti-dualist. The self arises as part of the process of an embodied entity interacting with the environment in precise ways determined by its physiology. In this sense, individuals can be seen to "grow into" or arise from, their interactive role with the world. The self does not represent the world, but produces it through the nature of its unique way of interacting with its environment, stated the authors of The embodied mind: Cognitive science and human experience.

Ned Block (born 1942) is an American philosopher working in the field of the philosophy of mind who has made important contributions to matters of consciousness and cognitive science. In 1971, he obtained his Ph.D. from Harvard University under Hilary Putnam. He went to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as an assistant professor of philosophy (1971-1977), worked as associate professor of philosophy (1977-1983), professor of philosophy (1983-1996) and served as chair of the philosophy section (1989-1995). He has, since 1996, been a professor in the departments of philosophy and psychology and at the Center for Neural Science at New York University (NYU).

Block is noted for presenting the Blockhead argument against the Turing Test as a test of intelligence in a paper entitled Psychologism and Behaviourism (1981). He is also known for his criticism of functionalism, arguing that a system with the same functional states as a human is not necessarily conscious. In his more recent work on consciousness, he has made a distinction between phenomenal consciousness and access consciousness, where phenomenal consciousness consists of subjective experience and feelings and access consciousness consists of that information globally available in the cognitive system for the purposes of reasoning, speech and high-level action control. He has argued that access consciousness and phenomenal consciousness might not always coincide in human beings.

Stephen Ian “Steve” McIntosh (b. July 3, 1960) is an American author, activist, lawyer, and entrepreneur. He is the founder and president of Now & Zen, Inc., and an influential writer in the field of integral thought.

Steve McIntosh is a first generation American, born in Norwalk, Connecticut to an English mother and Australian father. His parents divorced in 1962 when he was two years old, after which he lived with his mother as an only child, growing up in Los Angeles. In 1979 he dedicated himself to bicycle road racing, and in 1980 and 1981 participated in America’s “National Tour”, the Coors Classic bicycle race. In 1983 he was a pioneer in the new sport of mountain bicycle racing, riding for Ross Bicycles, the world’s first factory sponsored mountain bike racing team.

In 1984 he graduated from the University of Southern California business school, winning the USC Entrepreneur Program’s “Best Business Plan Award”. In 1987 he graduated among the top of his class from the University of Virginia Law School where he served as articles editor of the Virginia Law Review. After becoming a member of the California Bar in 1987, he worked for California’s biggest law firm, Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro. In 1990 he moved to Boulder, Colorado to become vice president of the start-up environmental products company, Earth Wise, Inc. In 1991 Earth Wise was acquired by Celestial Seasonings tea company, where McIntosh served as an executive officer and general council. In 1995 he left Celestial Seasonings to found Now & Zen, Inc., where he continues to serve as the company’s CEO.