Publication 8214

Open peer commentary on the article “In Maturana’s Wake: The Biology of Cognition’s Legacy and its Prospects” by Randall Whitaker. Abstract: With respect to pedagogic goals, Whitaker’s work stands for itself. First, I suggest valuing Maturana’s first-person approach to social interaction analysis and further exploring his late work and experience in applying biology of cognition to practical problems in social relations. Then I criticize Whitaker’s insufficient explanation of his distinction of the “abstract (non-physical)” nature of what he calls the “novel domain” engendered by the feature of operational closure of the nervous system. I end by discussing the difficulties encountered by the author when trying to “extract” a pedagogical methodology from biology of cognition.