scholarly journals Are living beings extended autopoietic systems? An embodied reply

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Villalobos ◽  
Pablo Razeto-Barry
Keyword(s):  
Research Program ◽  
Original Formulation ◽  
Autopoietic Systems ◽  
Form Part ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Autopoietic Theory ◽  
Extended Interpretation

Building on the original formulation of the autopoietic theory (AT), extended enactivism argues that living beings are autopoietic systems that extend beyond the spatial boundaries of the organism. In this article, we argue that extended enactivism, despite having some basis in AT’s original formulation, mistakes AT’s definition of living beings as autopoietic entities. We offer, as a reply to this interpretation, a more embodied reformulation of autopoiesis, which we think is necessary to counterbalance the (excessively) disembodied spirit of AT’s original formulation. The article aims to clarify and correct what we take to be a misinterpretation of AT as a research program. AT, contrary to what some enactivists seem to believe, did not (and does not) intend to motivate an extended conception of living beings. AT’s primary purpose, we argue, was (and is) to provide a universal individuation criterion for living beings, these understood as discrete bodies that are embedded in, but not constituted by, the environment that surrounds them. However, by giving a more explicitly embodied definition of living beings, AT can rectify and accommodate, so we argue, the enactive extended interpretation of autopoiesis, showing that although living beings do not extend beyond their boundaries as autopoietic unities, they do form part, in normal conditions, of broader autopoietic systems that include the environment.

scholarly journals Living beings as autopoietic bodies

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-58
Author(s):  
Mario Villalobos
Keyword(s):  
Natural Kind ◽  
Definition Of Life ◽  
Conceptual Definition ◽  
Theoretical Status ◽  
Target Article ◽  
Theoretical Identity ◽  
Identity Statement ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Autopoietic Theory ◽  
Extended Interpretation

In the target article, it was claimed that the enactive extended interpretation of the autopoietic theory (AT) of living beings is incorrect, and an embodied reformulation of AT (EAT) was put forward to remedy and prevent such an interpretation. In this general reply, I want to clarify the motivation, reach, philosophical commitments, and theoretical status of EAT. I do this, mainly, by explicating the notions of body and autopoiesis, and by reconstructing EAT, not as a conceptual definition of life but as a theoretical identity statement of living beings as a natural kind.

Deriving the bodily grounding of living beings with molecular autopoiesis

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eran Agmon
Keyword(s):  
Original Formulation ◽  
Autopoietic Systems ◽  
Definition Of

“Are living beings extended autopoietic systems? An embodied reply,” makes the case for grounding the autopoietic definition of living beings to the discrete bodies of organisms rather than to autopoietic systems that extend beyond the organisms into their environments. They attempt this grounding by amending a clause to the original formulation of autopoiesis that identifies living beings with their bodies, and then they explicitly define “bodies”. This commentary makes the case that bodily grounding can be derived from molecular autopoiesis by taking the molecular domain seriously, and no new amendment is required.

Two challenges to the embodied version of the autopoietic theory

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Jimena Clavel Vázquez
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Autopoietic Systems ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One ◽  
Autopoietic Theory ◽  
Extended Interpretation ◽  
The Way

“In Are living beings extended autopoietic systems? An embodied reply”, Villalobos and Razeto-Barry offer an articulation of the embodied aspect of the autopoietic theory. Their aim is to block the extended interpretation of this theory. For them, living beings are, simply put, autopoietic bodies. In this commentary, I advance two concerns regarding the alleged cases of extended living beings. On the one hand, I argue that their proposal fails to account for the intuitive difference between these cases and living beings that are embedded in the environment. On the other hand, I argue that, from the perspective offered by the authors, there also seems to be a problem in the way the boundaries of a system are delineated.

Slave Women and Their Descendants among the Upper Classes in Tetouan, Morocco (1859–1956): Between Recognition and Conflict

2020 ◽  
pp. 036319902096739
Author(s):  
Josep Lluís Mateo Dieste
Keyword(s):  
Skin Color ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Form Part ◽  
Slave Women ◽  
The Status ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Determinant Factor

In the Arab world, the recognized children of elite men and slave women could adopt the status of their father, ignoring the slave origin of the mother, owing to a system of patrilineal transmission. This regime co-existed with negative stereotypes toward slaves and blackness, despite the very fact that—as this study of notable families in Tetouan between 1859 and 1956 demonstrates—skin color was not the determinant factor to form part of this group. Rather, it was based on the social definition of filiation, leading to legal disputes between family members to delineate the boundaries of kinship.

Recognition and subtyping of atypical depression by French Practitioners

1993 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 267-271
Author(s):  
P Boyer ◽  
Y Lecrubier ◽  
AJ Puech
Keyword(s):  
General Practitioners ◽  
Depressive Disorders ◽  
Atypical Depression ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
Form Part ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Major Depressive Episodes ◽  
Depressive Episodes ◽  
Psychosocial Models ◽  
Preliminary Phase

SummaryA two-part survey of French General practitioners was carried out to determine attitudes and diagnostic criteria for definition of atypical depression, major depressive episodes, and anxiety disorder. Following a preliminary phase in which 90 physicians were interviewed, 500 general practitioners received detailed questionnaires based upon DSM III-R criteria, as well as supplementary questions based upon the Leibowitz and Akiskal criteria. Principal criteria analysis and regression analysis were carried out on the 280 analyzable files received. Results showed that anxiety disorders were primarily defined in terms of somatic criteria, and that there were a number of factors common to anxiety and depression. Minor depression was also defined primarily on the basis of somatic complaints, together with loss of energy and fatigue. Major depression was defined primarily by asthenia, apragmatism and loss of drive, together with less strongly weighted cognitive factors (sadness, Pessimism, inhibition, etc). From a dimensional standpoint, depression is defined as a “vital deficit”, with a failure to cope with social and environmental demands. It is interesting to note that the duration criterion was not considered to be of nosological relevance by the physicians, and was generally ignored in the definition of mental pathologies. The international subtyping of depressive disorders does not form part of the Practice of French practitioners, who prefer to retain the older, psychosocial models.

The Grammar of Messianism

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew V. Novenson
Keyword(s):  
Research Program ◽  
Detailed Comparison ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Alternative Account ◽  
The Future ◽  
Alternative Research ◽  
Definition Of

In this concluding, synthetic chapter the findings of the previous chapters are brought together to illustrate a new, alternative research program for the study of ancient messiah texts. In a detailed comparison with the idiomatic use of the fasces (“bundles” of rods) in Roman imperial literature and art, it is proposed that the idiomatic use of “anointing” discourse among ancient Jews and Christians is a similarly influential and similarly parochial symbol of political authority. On this alternative account, the future of the study of messianism lies not in vain attempts to measure the vigor of the phenomenon, nor in pedantic quarrels over the definition of “messiah,” nor in lightly revised taxonomies of redeemer figures, but rather in fresh expeditions into the primary sources to trace the grammar of messianism.

scholarly journals Plausible Emergence of Autocatalytic Cycles under Prebiotic Conditions

Life ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Piotto ◽  
Lucia Sessa ◽  
Andrea Piotto ◽  
Anna Nardiello ◽  
Simona Concilio
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Reactions ◽  
Scientific Question ◽  
Physical Conditions ◽  
Autopoietic Systems ◽  
Simulation Based ◽  
Simple Rules ◽  
Prebiotic Environments ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Emergence Of Life ◽  
Philosophical Importance

The emergence of life in a prebiotic world is an enormous scientific question of paramount philosophical importance. Even when life (in any sense we can define it) can be observed and replicated in the laboratory, it is only an indication of one possible pathway for life emergence, and is by no means be a demonstration of how life really emerged. The best we can hope for is to indicate plausible chemical–physical conditions and mechanisms that might lead to self-organizing and autopoietic systems. Here we present a stochastic simulation, based on chemical reactions already observed in prebiotic environments, that might help in the design of new experiments. We will show how the definition of simple rules for the synthesis of random peptides may lead to the appearance of networks of autocatalytic cycles and the emergence of memory.

Typologie sociologique de l'ordre religieux

1971 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Hill ◽  
André Rousseau
Keyword(s):  
Sociology Of Religion ◽  
Ideal Type ◽  
Religious Orders ◽  
Religious Order ◽  
Ideal Types ◽  
Form Part ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

Ideal types of forms of Christian organisation have proved fruitful in the Sociology of Religion, and a review of the main features of types in this area suggests that religious orders may be analysed in this way. Starting from a definition of the basic theological concepts — ascetism, monasticism and dif ferent uses of the term « religious order » — an ideal type of the religious order is constructed which shows the main features of such organizations and the relationship between them and the wider organization of the Church, of which they form part. As a result of comparison with Wilson's ideal type of the sect, certain parallels are revealed which suggest that the order may be considered as to some extent a « sect within a church », and this interpretation is elaborated using historical and theological literature. Further points of com parison are also noted and the most crucial differences between sects and orders are likewise pointed out. The main distinction noted is that the order only exists as part of a church, while the sect exists for its own members only.

scholarly journals Enumeration on graph mosaics

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (05) ◽  
pp. 1750032 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyungpyo Hong ◽  
Seungsang Oh
Keyword(s):  
Quantum System ◽  
Research Program ◽  
Knot Theory ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Recursion Formula ◽  
Jones Polynomial ◽  
Exact Enumeration ◽  
State Matrix ◽  
Embedded Graph ◽  
Definition Of

Since the Jones polynomial was discovered, the connection between knot theory and quantum physics has been of great interest. Lomonaco and Kauffman introduced the knot mosaic system to give a definition of the quantum knot system that is intended to represent an actual physical quantum system. Recently the authors developed an algorithm producing the exact enumeration of knot mosaics, which uses a recursion formula of state matrices. As a sequel to this research program, we similarly define the (embedded) graph mosaic system by using 16 graph mosaic tiles, representing graph diagrams with vertices of valence 3 and 4. We extend the algorithm to produce the exact number of all graph mosaics. The magnified state matrix that is an extension of the state matrix is mainly used.

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