Perception by effortful touch and a lawful approach to (the evolution of) perceiving and acting

To the extent that the processes of perceiving and of evolving are mutuality dependent and mutually supportive, so too must be the scientific theories of how such processes occur. We argue that the assumptions that underlie the predominant (cognitive, representational, or computational) theories of perceiving lead to numerous puzzles and paradoxes when such approaches are considered in an evolutionary context. Therefore, such predominant theories of how perceiving occurs are incapable of being mutually dependent on and supportive of theories of how evolution occurs. We argue that Gibson's ecological approach to perceiving and behaving not only rejects these problematic assumptions but also develops a law-based explanation of perceiving and acting, with an evolutionary context in mind from the start. Therefore, it is fully capable of being a mutually dependent and supportive partner to theories of evolution. Moreover, we use the ecological approach to perception by touch to illustrate exactly how and why this is so.