
Lecture by Andreas Weber
Ouroboros, XI.
Speaker of the day: Andreas Weber
Topic: Varela, Weber, “Life after Kant – Natural purposes and the autopoietic foundations of biological individuality” (2002) Continue reading Lecture by Andreas Weber
Ouroboros, XI.
Speaker of the day: Andreas Weber
Topic: Varela, Weber, “Life after Kant – Natural purposes and the autopoietic foundations of biological individuality” (2002) Continue reading Lecture by Andreas Weber
The redeeming word of our age, the only thing “to be grasped on this side of all ideologies, on this side of God and the state, of nature and history; something from which ideologies may arise, but that with equal certainty also devours them again”: life (Plessner 2019, 1). What is it, how do we recognise it, and how does it work? We find ourselves in a world of things and objects, and strive to make sense of them. Based on their similarities, we group them into genera, and based on their differences, we look for the specific features which set them apart from their neighbours. Why do we do this, more or less explicitly? To survive, to sate our nagging curiosity, because we cannot help ourselves? Continue reading Between Boundaries: Defining Life in Autopoietic Theory and Plessner
Ouroboros, III.
Speaker of the day: Tom Froese
Topic: Varela, “Autonomy and Autopoiesis” (1981) & “Steps to a Cybernetics of Autonomy” (1986) Continue reading Lecture by Tom Froese
Ouroboros, II.
Speaker of the day: Evan Thompson
Topic: Varela, “Not One, Not Two” (1976) Continue reading Lecture by Evan Thompson
Ouroboros, I.
Speaker of the day: Louis Kauffman
Topic: Varela, “Calculus of Self-Reference” (1975) and Varela & Gougen, “The Arithmetic of Closure” (1978) Continue reading Lecture by Louis Kauffman