A Basic Introduction to the Trace & Trajectory Framework Version 4.3—A Pedagogical Overview

The Trace & Trajectory Framework (TTF) offers a non-representationalist approach to meaning, cognition, and selfhood, grounded in dynamical systems theory and radical enactivism. Unlike traditional cognitive science, which treats meaning as something stored in mental representations, TTF proposes that meaning is enacted—it emerges through temporally extended navigational patterns called trajectories. This paper provides a foundational introduction to TTF's core concepts, parameters, and analytical vocabulary. It addresses readers encountering the framework for the first time, those requiring a compact reference for specialized applications, and scholars seeking to understand how TTF dissolves classical problems in philosophy of mind and cognitive science—including the symbol grounding problem, the scalability problem, and debates about representational content. The framework introduces a layered architecture of traces, threads, and trajectories operating across granularity scales (λ), coupled with transduction mechanisms that enable coordination between distinct navigational spaces without requiring shared representations. Throughout, conceptual clarity is prioritized over technical formalization, using analogies and worked examples to illuminate the framework's central commitments.