Abriszewski K. (2008) Notes towards Uniting Actor-Network Theory and Josef Mitterer’s Non-dualizing Philosophy. Constructivist Foundations 3(3): 192–200. Fulltext at https://cepa.info/98
Purpose: To show the convergences between Josef Mitterer’s non-dualizing way of speaking and actor-network theory. Method: Comparative analysis of Mitterer’s non-dualizing philosophy and actor-network philosophy. Findings: Profound convergences between the two accounts may lead to a unified account that could redefine traditional philosophical problems. Benefits: The paper extends the range of Mitterer’s non-dualizing philosophy and actor-network theory enabling both to face new problems. Among them, extended non-dualizing philosophy may undergo empirical investigations.
Ataria Y., Dor-Ziderman Y. & Berkovich-Ohana A. (2015) How does it feel to lack a sense of boundaries? A case study of a long-term mindfulness meditator. Consciousness and Cognition 37: 133–147.
This paper discusses the phenomenological nature of the sense of boundaries (SB), based on the case of S, who has practiced mindfulness in the Satipathana and Theravada Vipassana traditions for about 40years and accumulated around 20,000h of meditative practice. S’s unique abilities enable him to describe his inner lived experience with great precision and clarity. S was asked to shift between three different stages: (a) the default state, (b) the dissolving of the SB, and (c) the disappearance of the SB. Based on his descriptions, we identified seven categories (with some overlap) that alter during the shifts between these stages, including the senses of: (1) internal versus external, (2) time, (3) location, (4) self, (5) agency (control), (6) ownership, and (7) center (first-person-egocentric-bodily perspective). Two other categories, the touching/touched structure and one’s bodily feelings, do not fade away completely even when the sense-of-boundaries disappears.
Barwell R. (2009) Researchers’ descriptions and the construction of mathematical thinking. Educational Studies in Mathematics 72(2): 255–269. Fulltext at https://cepa.info/3731
Research in mathematics education is a discursive process: It entails the analysis and production of texts, whether in the analysis of what learners say, the use of transcripts, or the publication of research reports. Much research in mathematics education is concerned with various aspects of mathematical thinking, including mathematical knowing, understanding and learning. In this paper, using ideas from discursive psychology, I examine the discursive construction of mathematical thinking in the research process. I focus, in particular, on the role of researchers’ descriptions. Specifically, I examine discursive features of two well-known research papers on mathematical thinking. These features include the use of contrast structures, categorisation and the construction of facts. Based on this analysis, I argue that researchers’ descriptions of learners’ or researchers’ behaviour and interaction make possible subsequent accounts of mathematical thinking.
Maturana and Varela’s concept of autopoiesis defines the essential organization of living systems and serves as a foundation for their biology of cognition and the enactive approach to cognitive science. As an initial step toward a more formal analysis of autopoiesis, this paper investigates its application to the compact, recurrent spatiotemporal patterns that arise in Conway’s Game of Life cellular automata. In particular, we demonstrate how such entities can be formulated as self-constructing networks of interdependent processes that maintain their own boundaries. We then characterize the specific organizations of several such entities, suggest a way to simplify the descriptions of these organizations, and briefly consider the transformation of such organizations over time. Relevance: The paper presents an analysis of a minimal concrete model of autopoiesis to provide a more rigorous foundation for the concept of autopoiesis and highlight its ambiguities and difficulties.
Bich L. & Damiano L. (2008) Order in the nothing: Autopoiesis and the Organizational Characterization of the Living. Electronic Journal of Theoretical Physics 4(1): 343–373. Fulltext at https://cepa.info/2318
An approach which has the purpose to catch what characterizes the specificity of a living system, pointing out what makes it different with respect to physical and artificial systems, needs to find a new point of view – new descriptive modalities. In particular it needs to be able to describe not only the single processes which can be observed in an organism, but what integrates them in a unitary system. In order to do so, it is necessary to consider a higher level of description which takes into consideration the relations between these processes, that is the organization rather than the structure of the system. Once on this level of analysis we can focus on an abstract relational order that does not belong to the individual components and does not show itself as a pattern, but is realized and maintained in the continuous flux of processes of transformation of the constituents. Using Tibor Ganti’s words we call it “Order in the Nothing”. In order to explain this approach we analyse the historical path that generated the distinction between organization and structure and produced its most mature theoretical expression in the autopoietic biology of Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela. We then briefly analyse Robert Rosen’s (M, R)-Systems, a formal model conceptually built with the aim to catch the organization of living beings, and which can be considered coherent with the autopoietic theory. In conclusion we will propose some remarks on these relational descriptions, pointing out their limits and their possible developments with respect to the structural thermodynamical description.
Investigated the teaching behaviors of 11 teacher educators working with early childhood education student teachers. Participants provided course syllabi and written descriptions of activities and assignments, then completed interviews. Most instructors philosophically aligned with constructivist epistemology, though few discussed constructivist theory explicitly in class or with colleagues. Constructivist tenets were instead reflected in classroom pedagogy and interactions with students.
Brocklesby J. (2007) The theoretical underpinnings of soft systems methodology-comparing the work of Geoffrey Vickers and Humberto Maturana. Systems Research and Behavioral Science 24(2): 157–169. Fulltext at https://cepa.info/2800
This paper seeks to juxtapose the work of Sir Geoffrey Vickers and Humberto Maturana with a view to thinking more about the theoretical underpinnings of Peter Checkland’s soft systems methodology (SSM) and of soft systems and soft operational research more generally. The paper argues that Maturana’s ‘Theory of the Observer’ can usefully complement Vickers by specifying more precisely the nature of the cognitive structures that underpin people’s descriptions of situations, by clarifying the relationship between cognitive creativity and the historical and relational constraints that bear upon people’s descriptions and explanations, and by providing a more complete description of the dynamics that underpin individual and social learning.
This collection presents a comprehensive overview of established and emerging techniques for collecting and analyzing data for constructivists, derived from Personal Construct psychology. It looks at both qualitative and quantitative research methods, as well as ones useful in clinical and counseling settings. Methods include content analysis, repertory grids, narrative assessments and drawings, and the laddering and ABC techniques, providing easy to follow descriptions and examples of applications in clinical and nonclinical settings.
Cariani P. (2001) Symbols and dynamics in the brain. BioSystems 60(1–3): 59–83. Fulltext at https://cepa.info/4139
The work of physicist and theoretical biologist Howard Pattee has focused on the roles that symbols and dynamics play in biological systems. Symbols, as discrete functional switching-states, are seen at the heart of all biological systems in the form of genetic codes, and at the core of all neural systems in the form of informational mechanisms that switch behavior. They also appear in one form or another in all epistemic systems, from informational processes embedded in primitive organisms to individual human beings to public scientific models. Over its course, Pattee’s work has explored (1) the physical basis of informational functions (dynamical vs. rule-based descriptions, switching mechanisms, memory, symbols), (2) the functional organization of the observer (measurement, computation), (3) the means by which information can be embedded in biological organisms for purposes of self-construction and representation (as codes, modeling relations, memory, symbols), and (4) the processes by which new structures and functions can emerge over time. We discuss how these concepts can be applied to a high-level understanding of the brain. Biological organisms constantly reproduce themselves as well as their relations with their environs. The brain similarly can be seen as a self-producing, self-regenerating neural signaling system and as an adaptive informational system that interacts with its surrounds in order to steer behavior.
Chandler J. L. R. (2000) Complexity IX: Closure over the organization of a scientific truth. In: Chandler J. & Van de Vijver G. (eds.) Closure: Emergent organizations and their dynamics. New York Academy of Sciences, New York: 75–90.
The specificity of human knowledge allow one to construct specific truths about human behavior. A structural notation and language for describing a complex hierarchically organized biological system was developed for the explicit purpose of analyzing the origins of health and disease. A specific application of these concepts to a specific patient (such as an individual suffering from the heritable disease, sickle cell anemia) requires a systematic formulation of a scientific truth. No universal law is applicable. The value of a clinical truth for the patient, as well as for the physician and society, is substantial. This value has moral, ethical, and legal weight. Both physics and chemistry use a universal external invariant reference system. Human beings and other living organisms function by an internal reference system that is neither invariant nor universal. In order to address the complexity of scientific truths within living systems, a mathematical graph is constructed from observations, descriptions, and symbolizations of the relevant human scientific activities and is placed in mutual coreference with three philosophical theories of truth. Consistency within the referencing relations of the graphic object creates an image of complex truths. When mapped over degrees of internal organization, the structural consistencies can form hierarchically transitive relations (many-to-one) creating redundancies that confirm one-another. Both structural and dynamic information can be composed within the graphic framework. The redundancies intrinsic to the degrees of organization notation, semantics, and syntax augment one another in the search for scientific truth. The degree of certitude emerging from structural implications increases in relation to the number of hierarchical degrees of organization invoked to represent the various behaviors of complex systems (as illustrated by the sickle cell anemia example). The successful synthesis of the complex image (or complex simple) of a scientific truth approaches the Heideggerian notion of identity in the sense that A = A and A is A.