Principles of Biological Autonomy

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

PART I AUTONOMY OF THE LIVING AND ORGANIZATIONAL CLOSURE

Chapter 1 Autonomy and Biological Thinking

1.1    Evolution and the Individual

1.2    Molecules and Life

Chapter 2 Autopoiesis as the Organization of Living Systems

2.1    The Duality Between Organization and Structure

2.2    Autopoietic Machines

2.3    Living Systems

Chapter 3 A Tesselation Example of Autopoiesis

3.1    The Model

3.2    Interpretations

Chapter 4 Embodiments of Autopoiesis

4.1    Autopoietic Dynamics

4.2    Questions of Origin

Chapter 5 The Individual in Development and Evolution

5.1    Introduction

5.2    Subordination to the Condition of Unity

5.3    Plasticity of Ontogeny: Structural Coupling

5.4    Reproduction and the Complications of the Unity

5.5    Evolution, a Historical Network

Chapter 6 On the Consequences of Autopoiesis

6.1    Introduction

6.2    Biological Implications

6.3    Epistemological Consequences

Chapter 7 The Idea of Organizational Closure

7.1    Higher-Order Autopoietic Systems

7.2    Varieties of Autonomous Systems

PART II DESCRIPTIONS, DISTINCTIONS, AND CIRCULARITIES

Chapter 8 Operational Explanations and the Dispensability of Information

8.1    Introduction

8.2    Purposelessness

8.3    Individuality

Chapter 9 Symbolic Explanations

9.1    Descriptive Complementarity

9.2    Modes of Explanation

9.3    Symbolic Explanations

9.4    Complementary Explanations

9.5    Admissible Symbolic Descriptions

Chapter 10 The Framework of Complementarities

10.1    Introduction

10.2    Distinction and Indication

10.3    Recursion and Behavior

10.4    Nets and Trees

10.5    Complementarity and Adjointness

10.6    Excursus into Dialectics

10.7    Holism and Reductionism

Chapter 11 Calculating Distinctions

11.1    On Formalization

11.2    Distinctions and Indications

11.3    Recalling the Primary Arithmetic

I 1.4 An Algebra of Indicational Forms

Chapter 12 Closure and Dynamics of Forms

12.1    Reentry

12.2    The Complementarity of Pattern

12.3    The Extended Calculus of Indications

12.4    Interpreting the Extended Calculus

12.5    A Waveform Arithmetic

12.6    Brownian Algebras

12.7    Completeness and Structure of Brownian Algebras

12.8    Varieties of Waveforms and Interference Phenomena

12.9    Constructing Waveforms

12.10    Reentrant Forms and Infinite Expressions

12.11    Autonomous Systems and Reentrant Forms Reconsidered

Chapter 13 Eigenbehavior: Some Algebraic Foundations of Self-Referential System Processes

13.1    Introduction

13.2    Self-Determined Behavior: Illustrations

13.3    Algebras and Operator Domains

13.4    Variables and Derived Operators

13.5    Infinite Trees

13.6    Continuous Algebras

13.7    Equations and Solutions

13.8    Reflexive Domains

13.9    Indicational Reentry Revisited

13.10    Double Binds as Eigenbehaviors

13.11    Differentiable Dynamical Systems and Representations of Autonomy

PART III COGNITIVE PROCESSES

Chapter 14 The Immune Network: Self and Nonsense in the Molecular Domain

14.1    Organizational Closure and Structural Change

14.2    Self-Versus-Nonself Discrimination

14.3    The Lymphoid Network

14.4    Network Links and Plasticity

14.5    Regulation in the Immune Network

14.6    Cognitive Domain for the Lymphoid System

14.7    Genetic and Ontogenetic Determination of the Cognitive Domain

14.8    A Change in Perspective

Chapter 15 The Nervous System as a Closed Network

15.1    The System of the Nervous Tissues

15.2    Change and Structural Coupling

15.3    Perception and Invariances

15.4    The Case of Size Constancy

15.5    Piaget and Knowledge

15.6    Interdependence in Neural Networks

Chapter 16 Epistemology Naturalized

16.1    Varieties of Cognitive Processes

16.2    In-formation

16.3    Linguistic Domains and Conversations

16.4    Units of Mind

16.5    Human Knowledge and Cognizing Organisms APPENDIXES

Appendix A Algorithm for a Tesselation Example of Autopoiesis

A.l Conventions

A.    2 Algorithm

Appendix B Some Remarks on Reflexive Domains and Logic

B. l Type-Free Logical Calculi

B.2 Indicational Calculi Interpreted for Logic

References

Index