Kuhnian philosophy of science has established the existence of a social dimension within epistemology, but neo-Kuhnian accounts remain limited by linguistically centered conceptions of rationality and normativity. As an alternative, I use an embodied epistemology to reframe two neo-Kuhnian concepts: Fred D’Agostino’s ( 2010 ) federal model of enquiry and William Rehg’s ( 2009 ) immanent cogency. Both concepts are concerned, in part, with how scientific communities balance conservative and innovative impulses. By treating interaction as a fundamental frame of analysis, embodied epistemology offers a more nuanced perspective on this “essential tension,” while also blunting realist re-interpretations of each concept.