Francisco J. Varela

A unique, sophisticated treatment of the spontaneous and reflective dimension of human experience.

Cognitive Science and Human Experience

The Embodied Mind

Humberto R. Maturana

This text explores 'knowing how we know'. Its authors present a new view of cognition that has important social and ethical implications. They assert that the only world we humans can have is the one we create together through the actions of our coexistence.

The Biological Roots of Human Understanding

The Tree of Knowledge

Der Baum der Erkenntnis. Die biologischen Wurzeln des menschlichen Erkennens.

How can science be brought to connect with experience? This book addresses two of the most challenging problems facing contemporary neurobiology and cognitive science: understanding how we unconsciously execute habitual actions as a result of neurological and cognitive processes, and creating an ethic adequate to our present awareness that there is no such thing as a transcendental self, a stable subject, or a soul.

Action, Wisdom, and Cognition

Ethical Know-how

Mahir Ünsal Eriş

İnsan anlayışının biyolojik temelleri

Bilgi ağacı

Jonathan Shear

Investigating the brain "from the outside" using brain scanning technology, such as PET and fMRI, bring great precision to results. However, examining the "view from within" the brain isn't so easy. This book presents results of investigations, that examines the conscious mind "from the inside"

First-person Approaches to the Study of Consciousness

The View from Within

"A reissue of a classic work in philosophical biology written by Francisco Varela, with introductory material by Evan Thompson and Ezequiel Di Paolo"--

Principles of Biological Autonomy

Jon Kabat-Zinn

Evan Thompson

Eleanor Rosch

Embodied Mind, Revised Edition

Древо познания : биологические корни человеческого понимания

A new, updated edition of the 1979 classic from one of the foremost authors in cognitive science and theoretical biology, with the original text as well as more than 200 citations to current scientific developments. Francisco Varela’s Principles of Biological Autonomy was a groundbreaking text when it was first published in 1979, putting forth a novel theory of how living systems produce and maintain themselves. This new edition, edited and annotated by cognitive scientists Ezequiel Di Paolo and Evan Thompson—revised and complemented with introductory essays for each part of the book—contains a wealth of ideas relevant to current projects in theoretical biology, cognitive science, systems theory, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of biology. Over 220 margin annotations supplement the reading of the text, linking to subsequent research and broader contemporary debates. This foundational book introduces the key concept of autonomy derived as an elaboration of the idea of autopoiesis (the self-production and self-distinction) of living organisms. Varela covers topics in systems theory, neuroscience, theories of perception, and immune networks and offers a participatory epistemology that goes on to be further developed in later enactive literature. These ideas are compelling not only for historical reasons but also because they still illuminate current efforts in developing the enactive approach toward wider and more challenging goals (including language, human cognition, ethics, and environmentalism).

Principles of Biological Autonomy, a new annotated edition

This book addresses two of the most challenging problems facing contemporary neurobiology and cognitive science: first, understanding how we unconsciously execute habitual actions as a result of neurological and cognitive processes that are not formal actions of conscious judgement but part of a habitual nexus of systematic self-organization; second, creating an ethics adequate to our present awareness that there is no such thing as a transcendental self, a stable subject, or a soul. In summation, the author proposes an ethics founded on "savoir faire" that is a practice of transformation based on a constant recognition of the "virtual" nature of ourselves in the actual operations of our mental lives.

Investigating the brain "from the outside" using brain scanning technology, such as PET and fMRI, bring great precision to results. However, examining the "view from within" the brain isn't so easy. This book presents results of investigations, that examines the conscious mind "from the inside."

J.P. Dupuy

The main intention of this book is to bring together contributions from biology, cognitive science, and the humanities for a joint exploration of some of the main contemporary notions dealing with the understanding of origins in life,mind and society. The question of origin is inseparable from a web of hypotheses that both shape and explain us. Although origin invites examination, it always seems to elude our grasp. Notions have always been produced to interpret the genesis of life, mind, and the social order, and these notions have all remained unstable in the face of theoretical and empirical challenges. In any given period, the central ideas on origin have had a mutual resonance frequently overlooked by specialists engaged in theirown particular fields. As a consequence, this book should be of interest to a wide audi ence. In particular, for all those engaged in the social sciences and the philosophy of science, it is unique document, since bridges to the natural sciences in a mutually illuminating way are hard to find. Whether as a primary source or as inspirational reading, we feel this book has a place in every library. The material comes from an international meeting held in September 13-16, 1987 at Stanford University, organized by F. Varela and J.-P. Dupuy at the request of the Program of Interdisciplinary Research of Stanford University. We are grateful to Rene Girard, the Program Director, for making it possible with the help of the Mellon Foundation.

Contemporary Views on the Origins of Life, Mind and Society

Understanding Origins

Jeremy W. Hayward

Ponti sottili

Paul Bourgine

Artificial life embodies a recent and important conceptual step in modem science:asserting that the core of intelligence and cognitive abilities is the same as the capacity forliving. The recent surge of interest in artificial life has pushed a whole range of engineeringtraditions, such as control theory and robotics, beyond classical notions of goal and planning intobiologically inspired notions of viability and adaptation, situatedness and operationalclosure.These proceedings serve two important functions: they address bottom-up theories ofartificial intelligence and explore what can be learned from simple models such as insects about thecognitive processes and characteristic autonomy of living organisms, while also engaging researchersand philosophers in an exciting examination of the epistemological basis of this new trend.FranciscoJ. Varela is Director of Research at CNRS in Paris, France. Paul Bourgine is Professor of ArtificialIntelligence at CEMAGREF, Antony, France.Topics include: Artificial Animals. Genetic Algorithms.Autonomous Systems. Emergent Behaviors. Artificial Ecologies. Immunologic Algorithms. Self-AdaptingSystems. Emergent Structures. Emotion And Motivation. Neural Networks. Coevolution. FitnessLandscapes Contributors include: H. Bersini. Domenico Parisi. Rodney A. Brooks. Christopher G.Langton. S. Kauffman. J.-L. Denenbourg. Pattie Maes. John Holland. T. Smithers. H. Swefel. H.Muhlenbein.

Proceedings of the First European Conference on Artificial Life

Toward a Practice of Autonomous Systems

A new edition of a classic work that originated the “embodied cognition” movement and was one of the first to link science and Buddhist practices. This classic book, first published in 1991, was one of the first to propose the “embodied cognition” approach in cognitive science. It pioneered the connections between phenomenology and science and between Buddhist practices and science—claims that have since become highly influential. Through this cross-fertilization of disparate fields of study, The Embodied Mind introduced a new form of cognitive science called “enaction,” in which both the environment and first person experience are aspects of embodiment. However, enactive embodiment is not the grasping of an independent, outside world by a brain, a mind, or a self; rather it is the bringing forth of an interdependent world in and through embodied action. Although enacted cognition lacks an absolute foundation, the book shows how that does not lead to either experiential or philosophical nihilism. Above all, the book's arguments were powered by the conviction that the sciences of mind must encompass lived human experience and the possibilities for transformation inherent in human experience. This revised edition includes substantive introductions by Evan Thompson and Eleanor Rosch that clarify central arguments of the work and discuss and evaluate subsequent research that has expanded on the themes of the book, including the renewed theoretical and practical interest in Buddhism and mindfulness. A preface by Jon Kabat-Zinn, the originator of the mindfulness-based stress reduction program, contextualizes the book and describes its influence on his life and work.

la realizzazione del vivente

Autopoiesi e cognizione

Pierre Vermersch

Natalie Depraz

This book searches for the sources and means for a disciplined practical approach to exploring human experience. The spirit of this book is "pragmatic" and relies on a Husserlian phenomenology primarily understood as a "method" of exploring our experience. The authors do not aim at a neo-Kantian "a priori" new theory of experience but instead they describe a concrete activity: how we examine what we live through, how we "become aware" of our own mental life. The range of experiences of which we can become aware is vast: all the normal dimensions of human life (perception, motion, memory, imagination, speech, everyday social interactions), cognitive events that can be precisely defined as tasks in laboratory experiments (e.g., a protocol for visual attention), but also manifestations of mental life more fraught with meaning (dreaming, intense emotions, social tensions, altered states of consciousness). The central assertion in this work is that this immanent ability is habitually ignored or at best practiced unsystematically, that is to say, blindly. Exploring human experience amounts to developing and cultivating this basic ability through specific training. Only a hands-on, non-dogmatic approach can lead to progress, and that is what animates this book. (Series B)

Francisco J. Varela

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