Understanding as an enacted, biological, and contextual phenomenon
Somiology is an emerging field of study concerned with how understanding actually forms in living organisms, in lived situations, over time.
Rather than treating understanding as the possession of information, representations, or procedures, Somiology approaches understanding as an event—a biologically enacted coordination of perception, action, purpose, material engagement, and context.
The field developed in response to a persistent problem across education, psychology, and the learning sciences:
Why do individuals often demonstrate successful performance without understanding, while others struggle despite effort, intelligence, and support?
Somiology suggests that such outcomes are best explained not by ability or deficit, but by whether learners have access to the conditions through which understanding biologically develops.
This site serves as:
- a home for Somiology as a field of inquiry
- a scholarly commons for research and dialogue
- a foundation for an international academic community
- and a venue for peer-reviewed publication
Somiology is articulated publicly here as theory and method.
Specific educational implementations inspired by somiological principles are developed separately.