Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
A Tapestry of Essays
by
Robin Wilding
You only need a brain when you are moving. For stationary life
forms (like the mature sea squirt) a brain is no longer necessary.
Greenfield 1997
Cognition, the word, has its origins from Latin, cognitio, to know. It is defined in the Shorter
Oxford Dictionary as the action or faculty of knowing. We use the word increasingly to include
perceiving and conceiving as in “cognitive therapy”, the alteration of negative thoughts about the
self. But the use of the words “action” and “faculty” which derive from its origins are worth
returning to. They point us towards knowing “how to” as well as knowing “about”. If we or an
animal can perform some coherent action which is more than instinctive we may view it as action
based on cognitive knowledge, perhaps learnt. We might not want to use the expression “Birds know
how to migrate” but we would have to admit that those birds who get lost en route are missing
something the others have.
Cognitive Science
Philosophers have been pondering how we get to know and think about the world for many
years, but it is only recently that an approach to knowledge using computer modelling, has
elevated this quest to the status of a science and given it a name. Cognitive science is
relatively young and not yet coherent. There is no agreed sense of direction and there are
many contributing disciplines. Those which are commonly encountered are linguistics,
Interaction is also possible with adjacent organisms when they are structurally similar.
Maturana modifies the symbol of autopoiesis to represent a second order system resulting
which may allow some organisational coupling.
When these couplings are mutually beneficial the relationships become conserved. The
association may be loose and temporary or be so powerful as to lead to the partial loss of
autonomy within individual organisms and the development of a second order system. For
example, free swimming bacteria attach to surfaces when they can, to form an aggregate.
Another quite striking example of the capacity to change from a first order system to a second
order is seen in the life history of slime mould. These single celled organisms exists in a free
ranging mobile form which moves about on some forest floors. If their environment
becomes less suitable they begin to move together in quite a coherent way. The slime mould
organisms collect into a mass which then starts to move like a slug. The slug cannot feed and
has no separate organs but moves due to coherent streaming of its members. The slug does
not last long but reaches a spot where it appears to become anchored. It now changes shape
and a stalk rises from the base. At the top of the stalk some organisms become transformed
into spores and are released into the air to float to some better feeding ground. The organisms
in the stalk die.
These examples of biofilms and slime mould illustrates the potential advantage to an
organisms of losing some autonomy for the potential gain of collective living. In autopoietic
terms they have to transcend the first order systems if they are to benefit by structural
coupling that comes with second order systems. In the second order systems the survival of
individuals is transcended by the survival of the collective. In the case of the slime mould
there are many individuals who are sacrificed in the process of releasing a few pioneering
spores who alone have a chance of survival. I will return to biofilms and slime mold in the
next chapter as they both illustrate emergent order in systems.
Other one way transitions to a second order have apparently been so successful that they
have lasted billions of years. Thirty billion years ago, four different organisms, plastids
(including chloroplasts, organisms capable of photosynthesis), mitochondria and flagellated
bacteria, developed an association of mutual benefit with a host cell, and came to occupy a
Embodiement;
The conclusions about how we process information from the environment are not confined to
biologists like Maturana. The view of a world perceived through experiences is the essence of
phenomenology. It is a philosophical view which fits comfortably with biologists, who want a
definition of cognition which is broad enough to encompass the behaviours of all living organisms.
Merleau-Ponty was a philosopher who believed that the world we see has to be actively
Solipsism;
We , and perhaps other animals suffer from illusions, which, as Maturana points out, we are not
aware of, until they have been revealed. We live in what we think are valid reflections. But the self
referring inner neural system may create its own reality far from the constraints of the outside world.
Desires and fantasies make our observations unreliable. Hence the insistence by the early scientists to
discipline the mind, to observe objectively, without feeling and to measure and then re-measure until
the figures (now called data) revealed the real state of things “out there”. Of course the notion of
objectivity and detachment are illusions themselves. We have seen just how thoroughly scientists are
influenced by their desires and ambitions. But note that Merleau Ponty is not saying that we make an
inner reconstruction of an outer world, with all the illusions and fantasies that we may bring to it.
The outer process constructs and limits the inner. So for example there are not an infinite number of
colours for us to experience. He is arguing for an embodiment of the outer with the inner process.
The internal and external are one.
The risk of illusion and fantasy can be modified by testing validity amongst other observers.
Collective perceptions may be centred enough to discard peripheral and wayward versions of
reality. Scientists have made a virtue of engaging in debate in order to arrive at some consensus
view. Often enough they fail to reach consensus, but that is a healthy sign of the vigorous process
science should be. . A conference on black holes was specifically set up during 1999 in Norway in
order to sort out a very confusing array of opinion amongst cosmologists and physicists. Delegates
left the conference without arriving at any agreement. This non-result reassures the rest of us lay folk
that there is at present no standard body of knowledge regarding black holes which we should be
trying to grasp.
It still remains the gold standard of good science to look for corroborating evidence. If a scientist
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claims to have made a discovery, the doubters must not only examine his work carefully but must
look to other workers to try and replicate it. Eventually, that which seems to hold up even under
pressure of dissenters, gains a certain status of being recognised as the most likely version of reality.
But all those who subscribe to the orthodox scientific methods of enquiry would accept that there
never complete certainty. What makes science robust is the willingness to accept that a current idea
or theory is not written in stone but may be supplanted by a better one as new evidence emerges.
This acceptance of uncertainty and openness to movement is what separates science from dogma.
Groundlessness
There will always be a tension between, on the one hand viewing the world as seen through our
senses and on the other looking for a reality independent of our participation in it. The idea of
embodiment of inner and outer worlds is a balance between representation and solipsism. In this
middle way, lies compromise but also the discomfort of uncertainty. Groundlessness is a recurring
feature in Eastern philosophies. Varela et al believe that Western philosophy has been preoccupied
with finding a rational understanding of life and mind rather than a pragmatic method for dealing
with human experience. They encourage a mental journey into the Madhyamika Buddhist tradition of
mindfulness/awareness.
The father of the Madhyamika tradition was Nagarjuna, who lived in the second century CE. He
believed that there was no point in arguing whether things exist or are non-existent. Things
originate, or arise, co-dependently. He concludes “nothing is found that is not dependently arisen.
For that reason, nothing is found that is not empty”. There is an uncanny echo of this eastern view
to be found in the strange phenomenon discovered by particle physicists, that particles adopted
certain behaviour only when observed. The strange relationship between quantum physics and
Eastern philosophies was a theme in Fritjoff Capra’s book, “The Tao of Physics” Recall that the
outcome of psychic experiments were influenced by the attitude of the participants. The
experimenter in both cases is integrated with the experiment and cannot be isolated from it.
The Madhyamika tradition links groundlessness with compassion. When we are groundless there
is nothing (no ego) to be gained or lost. Being mindful/aware allows relatedness to enter and desire
to leave. Groundlessness may however be taken as despair, nihilism and loss of heart. The cure our
culture recommends is a return to meaning and the safety of familiar ground. Varela et al argue that
Buddhism offers a way of living which reduces despair and nihilism through encouraging
compassion for others and working for the relief of their suffering. In this pursuit, our own despair
and uncertainty becomes more bearable
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Compassion and Wisdom
Maturana wants to recognise our capacity for self transcendence and tenderness to the living
and non-living world around us. He believes that our human dilemma has it origins in the loss of a
matristic society of pagan times. The parental imperative to tend the human young for a long period,
and the retention of child like structure (in common with other neotenous apes) encouraged the
praxis of tenderness. The highly developed sexuality of the body encouraged mutual pleasure and
delight in tenderness throughout the adult life. This matristic society was not matriarchal, but did
give validity to the nurturing, reproductive, tending qualities of women (in particular). Maturana
suggests that Aryan, patriarchal herders, on horseback, overwhelmed the matristic society. To the
Aryan invasion could be added the impact of a monotheistic, hierarchical religions which debased
women, sex and nature. Christianity also soon took from its followers their sense of intrinsic
goodness, in exchange for the promise of salvation. Alan Watts urges us to explore this heritage and
to seek its reflection in an Eastern mirror, in which goodness and Godness is inherent in us all.
These views are echoes of views expressed in the Chapter on science and religion.
In the uneven and uncertain landscape of groundlessness there is a need for contemplation, a style
of observation which requires that the inner chatter of the mind be stilled so as to be receptive. In
quiet reflection of the world around us we may be able to see the separate parts connected to a
bigger whole. Use our senses, both individually and collectively to understand and to know wisely. .
There is a long history of psychic or intuitive perception in oral traditions. In Chapter 5 we
reviewed some of the evidence to suggest that some people have a capacity to know about events or
physical structures, which are non-local, unseen, unheard and unfelt. There is a large body of
credible research into ESP but there appears to be little serious consideration among cognitive
scientists of ESP as a significant or useful phenomenon of cognition.
Goodwin wants to see an expansion of our cognition to include the qualities as well as quantities
in science. There seems to be a need to heal the damage to our intrinsic sense of worth, and to
restore the validity of women, the sensuous and nature. We may then move with greater serenity into
the new landscape of groundlessness.
Conclusions
What do these examples tell us about cognition? Maturana and Varella have suggested that
cognition is the result of a history of experiences which have lead to a new level of
organisation. We have seen examples of first order systems, which over time, have build up a
history of experiences which have become conserved and established as a new level of
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cognition. What part have genes played in this process of expanding cognition? Biofilm
behaviour amongst free living bacteria was not a genetic creation and is not genetically
determined but it is made possible by changes in the environment which trigger gene activity
to change .
The view of living organisms suggested by Maturana encourages us to accept that knowing is a
process of remembered activity. This knowledge is centered within the organism and provides for
self regulation and internal order. The order is contained within a structural boundary, for example
the outer membrane or covering. There is also a larger organisational boundary within which the
organism operates. Events within this medium defined by this larger boundary trigger a variety of
patterns of internal order. The nature of the trigger determines what it is the organisms is able to
sense in the medium around it.. Knowing is the accumulated memories of internal patterns of order
and the influence on this order which is triggered by outside events. Maturana and Varrela coined
the term autopoieisis to describes the internal autonomy of a living system and its dialogue and
influence on and by its environment. The environment may include other organisms with which the
individual cooperates, sometimes to the extent of losing its own identity. The individual units of
multi-cellular organisms may operate as one individual. In social organisms like ants, it is difficult to
make sharp distinctions between the individual as a colony and the individual as an ant.
The sensory apparatus in complex living organisms is the nervous system. Like the sensors on
single celled organism, the nervous system works like a trigger. The patterns in the outer world
which it detects have been internally constructed. There is nothing logical or predictable about these
constructions. They are based on an accumulated history of encounters. There is for example some
similarity between the constructions humans have given to the phenomenon of colour but there is
little unanimity except that we all give names to between three and 15 colours.
Merleau Ponty believed that there is no concrete reality but only that which is as a setting for our
thoughts and perceptions. This view leaves reality dependent on perception, confined only by the
extent of internal illusions.
The Bhuddist view and interestingly, that of Goethe, is that nothing exists which has not arisen
co-dependently with something else. If this is so then of course the observer and the observed also
arise co-dependently. This process of interaction would naturally limit the illusions or inner
constructions of the observer to those which are in some way related to the phenomenon observed.
We could then ask whether our sense of the world around ,us might arise with greater coherence if
the observer allows a respectful dialogue with the observed. We have excluded the sensual
processes, especially feelings of compassion in scientific observation which might detect the
qualities of phenomena. A perception of qualities does not mean abandoning the careful measures
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of quantities in science but adds to the ways we can know.
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