The role of the concept of "abduction of agency" in Eduardo Viveiros de Castro's Amerindian perspectivism and the possibility of applying it to the study of technology

The article is devoted to the study of the concept of "abduction of agency", a term coined by the Brazilian anthropologist Eduardo Viveiros de Castro in his conception of Amerindian perspectivism. The concept was subsequently borrowed by Castro from the works of British anthropologist Alfred Gell. The central objective of the paper is to clarify the meaning of this concept in Viveiros de Castro's Amerindian perspectivism. This elucidation is undertaken to demonstrate the concept's suitability for philosophical and anthropological scrutiny of human interaction with technology. The paper's objectives are threefold: firstly, to provide a general description of the concept of abduction; secondly, to identify the role of the concept of "abduction of agency" in the works of Gell; thirdly, it will prove that Viveiros de Castro's understanding of the "abduction of agency" overcomes the criticism of this concept by British anthropologist, Tim Ingold. The methodological framework encompasses a historico-hermeneutical analysis of abduction in the history of philosophy (from C. S. Peirce to contemporary authors) and a critical-objective comparison of Gell's and Viveiros de Castro's interpretations. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the systematisation of the concept of "abduction of agency", which eliminates the gap in the research of Viveiros de Castro's work and opens prospects for its integration into the philosophy of technology and ethics of artificial intelligence. The practical significance of the work is related to the possibility of using the concept in the model human-technology interactions, where hypotheses are formed in the process of dynamic adaptation to changing conditions. The conclusions of the paper call into question Ingold's criticism, demonstrating that the "abduction of agency", as interpreted by Viveiros de Castro, does not contradict the idea of creativity as improvisation, but, on the contrary, enriches it, offering a new tool for interdisciplinary research.

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Publication Details

Journal
Философская мысль
Published
2025-04-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.25136/2409-8728.2025.4.74027
Primary Topic
Diverse multidisciplinary academic research
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article
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article

The role of the concept of "abduction of agency" in Eduardo Viveiros de Castro's Amerindian perspectivism and the possibility of applying it to the study of technology

Andrei Sergeevich Glukhovskii, Aleksey Yurievich Sergienko
Философская мысль
Diverse multidisciplinary academic research
article

The role of the concept of "abduction of agency" in Eduardo Viveiros de Castro's Amerindian perspectivism and the possibility of applying it to the study of technology

Andrei Sergeevich Glukhovskii, Aleksey Yurievich Sergienko
article en

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the concept of "abduction of agency", a term coined by the Brazilian anthropologist Eduardo Viveiros de Castro in his conception of Amerindian perspectivism. The concept was subsequently borrowed by Castro from the works of British anthropologist Alfred Gell. The central objective of the paper is to clarify the meaning of this concept in Viveiros de Castro's Amerindian perspectivism. This elucidation is undertaken to demonstrate the concept's suitability for philosophical and anthropological scrutiny of human interaction with technology. The paper's objectives are threefold: firstly, to provide a general description of the concept of abduction; secondly, to identify the role of the concept of "abduction of agency" in the works of Gell; thirdly, it will prove that Viveiros de Castro's understanding of the "abduction of agency" overcomes the criticism of this concept by British anthropologist, Tim Ingold. The methodological framework encompasses a historico-hermeneutical analysis of abduction in the history of philosophy (from C. S. Peirce to contemporary authors) and a critical-objective comparison of Gell's and Viveiros de Castro's interpretations. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the systematisation of the concept of "abduction of agency", which eliminates the gap in the research of Viveiros de Castro's work and opens prospects for its integration into the philosophy of technology and ethics of artificial intelligence. The practical significance of the work is related to the possibility of using the concept in the model human-technology interactions, where hypotheses are formed in the process of dynamic adaptation to changing conditions. The conclusions of the paper call into question Ingold's criticism, demonstrating that the "abduction of agency", as interpreted by Viveiros de Castro, does not contradict the idea of creativity as improvisation, but, on the contrary, enriches it, offering a new tool for interdisciplinary research.

Философская мысль(4)
Openalex Percentile: Top 92%
Diverse multidisciplinary academic research
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The role of the concept of "abduction of agency" in Eduardo Viveiros de Castro's Amerindian perspectivism and the possibility of applying it to the study of technology — Andrei Sergeevich Glukhovskii, Aleksey Yurievich Sergienko · Философская мысль (2025) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS