The Navigational Approach in Embodied Science (NAES)
NAES is a navigational philosophy of mind developed by neuroscience-trained philosopher and educator Andrea Hiott but inspired my many others (see here for her partial list).
It combines hippocampal research with embodied, processual and phenomenological philosophy towards a new approach to the definition and study of cognition.
Selected Resources:
Holding Paradox: A Navigational Approach to Mind and Consciousness (book)
Radical Embodied Relation at Any Scale: From Rembering to Navigating (paper)
Way-ability and cognitive affordances (urban planning)
Waymaking (blog)
Navigability (videos)
Further conversations about this (videos)
Some of the interviews and diaries that happened in the making of these ideas
Crucial: All navigability is inaccurate precisely because it is a representation/model and thus limited to the position, orientation and reason for which it was made. Navigability is a heuristic towards opening perspective, not anything that can be objective. There is no 'one' or 'right' navigability. Also, 'affordance' does not mean 'good' or 'bad' but is a way of discussing interactive probability.These are maps, not territories, and there are many different maps that can be made of a shared space depending on what part of the territory one is hoping to better understand. Those maps are different from each position and matter differently from each position accordingly.
Some of the Books
Holding Paradox — Iff Books, September 2025 The philosophical introduction to NAEC. Pre-order now.
How to Be Alive — Harper One, 2027 A personal exploration of NAEC for a general audience. Join the waitlist.
Thinking Small — Random House A philosophical history of the Volkswagen Beetle and what it reveals about thinking as movement. Available now.
Embracing Paradox — Making Ways A 44-page guide to holding contradictory ideas without collapsing them. Pay what you want. Included with paid Waymaking subscription.
AI Everywhere — She Writes AI community, co-authored. Available now.
Some of the Writing
Waymaking Substack — Andrea's personal philosophical home. Where NAEC is built in real time, where philosophy and ordinary life intersect. Free and paid tiers.
Vulnerable Voice Memos — Paid tier on Waymaking. Personal, unpolished recordings from inside the research. For those who want that kind of proximity.
Love & Philosophy Substack — The primary community newsletter. Beyond dichotomy. It's reasonable to care.
Some of the Conversations
YouTube — Love & Philosophy with Andrea Hiott — 300 conversations with scientists, philosophers, artists, and thinkers working beyond either/or. 86,000 subscribers.
Start here if you're new: Navigational Mind — Andrea explains NAEC in her own words. Karl Friston conversation — (add link)Michael Levin conversation — (add link)Manda Scott conversation — (add link)
Beyond Dichotomy Podcast — Listen on your favourite platform.
Ways to join with the Community
Making Ways — A multimedia care collective and community for philosophical inquiry across every boundary that usually keeps disciplines and people apart.
Care Community — Free global community for people across all disciplines for whom care shapes their practice.
Philosophy Index — Free index bridging academic and independent philosophy.
Love & Philosophy — The broader project. Beyond dichotomy. It's reasonable to care.
Some of the Research
Springer Nature paper — Radical Embodied Relation at any Scale — Open access. Free to read.
Universität Heidelberg — Doctoral research, philosophy faculty.
Get in Touch
To contribute a conversation to Love & Philosophy or to help build what this is becoming: admin@loveandphilosophy.com
To sustain this work as an individual or organization in a way that keeps it free and unconstrained: admin@loveandphilosophy.com
Studied neuroscience, stayed a philosopher. Slipping out of either/or frames and into constellations of care. Developing the Navigational Approach to Embodied Cognition (NAEC). Next books: Holding Paradox (Iff Books) and How to Be Alive (Harper One, 2027).