The topic of this article came out of an academic shock: one of those jarring halts where agreeable study is brought short by an incongruous idea or image. Such jolts can be a good thing: they force us to think anew, in the Deleuzian sense of event as a shock…
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Won’t be fooled again? Ezekiel Di Paolo and Enactive Autopoiesis: Semiology of Autopoiesis (VII)
I have distinguished between strict and loose definitions of the concept of autopoiesis. These definitions can overlap, in the sense that one might share conditions with another. They can also be inconsistent, internally and with each other, when they involve contradictory conditions. A looser definition has more conditions, but these…
Continue ReadingModes of Explanation: Semiology of Autopoiesis (V)
Across my first three posts on autopoiesis I have contrasted strict and looser definitions of the concept. The stricter definitions are more logically consistent; they hold together rigorously. The looser definitions apply to increased real and imaginary cases; they have greater extension. It would be a mistake, though, to think…
Continue ReadingSemiology of Autopoiesis (II)
Selections of the Sign: Unity Maturana and Varela’s Autopoiesis: the Organization of the Living begins with a sentence indebted to George Spencer-Brown and his form of distinction where ‘distinction is perfect continence’. In their version, this becomes ‘A universe comes into being when a space is severed into two. A…
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