A link to the Youtube stream will be available in this place and on the Mind & Life Europe Youtube channel. Scroll down to find the schedule and recaps of past events.

The 1st season of Ouroboros, our annual reading and discussion seminar series, began in March 2021. It focues on the opus of Francisco J. Varela, one of the pioneers of enactivism. In a series of sessions spanning across the year, experts, former collaborators, and friends will introduce some of his key works, followed by discussion among participants and outside guests. Below you may find information on the format as well as a schedule with links to past streams and summaries of events.

Organised by: Sebastjan Vörös (University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts), Metanoia, and Mind & Life Europe.

Format

The sessions take place online on Zoom for presenters and invited guests. In addition, there is a public stream to the Mind and Life Europe Youtube channel (a link to it will always be provided on this page as well). Stream viewers may ask questions, and they will be forwarded to the moderator.

Contact: Any questions should be addressed to metanoia.ouroboros@gmail.com. Note however that invites to the Zoom portion of the event are closed. You are welcome to join us on the Youtube stream instead.

Discord Community

We have also set up a Discord community for additional discussions before and after the seminars. To join it, write a short application to our email at metanoia.ouroboros@gmail.com with the subject-line “Ouroboros Discord Application”. Provide an introduction of yourself, your CV/academic background, and why you want to join the community, and after reviewing, we’ll send you a link to the Discord.

Session Structure

1. Introduction by moderator.
2. Presentation of article by speaker of the day (20-40 minutes)
3. Discussion (60 minutes)
   • Attendants write their questions to the moderator privately on Zoom, specifying whether they wish to voice them themselves or have the moderator do it in their stead.
   • Keep questions short and to the point. No long lead-ins, please.
   • Raise hands using the Zoom function if you wish to respond to a point and the moderator will invite you to speak when the opportunity arises.
4. Postfestum: The events will be uploaded to our Youtube channel, and a precis of the session will be posted on this website for easier tracking.

Schedule

Every session will begin at 18:00 Central European Summer Time with the exception of Tom Froese’s presentation on the 21st which will take place at 10:00 Central European Summer Time (due to timezone difference accommodations).

Date	Topic	Presenter
17 March	Varela, “Calculus of Self-Reference” (1975) and Varela & Gougen “The Arithmetic of Closure” (1978)	Louis Kauffman	» Watch » Summary
7 April	Varela, “Not One, Not Two” (1976)	Evan Thompson	» Watch
21 April at 10:00 CEST	Varela, “Autonomy and Autopoiesis” (1981) & “Steps to a Cybernetics of Autonomy” (1986)	Tom Froese
5 May	Varela, Thompson, “Color vision: A case study for the foundations of cognitive science” (1990)	Adrian Palacios
19 May	Varela, “Organism: A Meshwork of Selfless Selves” (1991) & “Patterns of Life” (1997)	Ezequiel DiPaolo
2 June	Varela, “Whence Perceptual Meaning” (1992)	Mog Stapleton
16 June	Varela, “A Cognitive View of Immune System” (1994)	Hugues Bersini
	July/August = break
1 September	Varela, “Neurophenomenology” (1996)	Antoine Lutz
15 September	Varela, “The phenomenology of Sunyata”	Michel Bitbol
6 October	Varela, Depraz, Vermersch, “The Gesture of Awareness” (1999)	Claire Petitmengin
20 October	Varela, Weber, “Life after Kant – Natural purposes and the autopoietic foundations of biological individuality”	Andreas Weber
3 November	Varela, Depraz – “ Imagining – Embodiment, Phenomenology, and Transformation “ (2003)	Hanne de Jaegher
17 November	Varela, Depraz, “At the Source of Time” (2005)	Natalie Depraz
1 December	Final Session: Varela, “Intimate Distances” (2001)	Amy Varela

Speakers

Click on any of the speakers to learn more about them.