METALOGY:
A COMMENTARY ON MIND, RECURSION AND TOPOLOGICAL INFERENCE
Adam Skibinski, Ph.D.
E-mail: adam@uroburos.pl
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ABSTRACT
Alfred
Korzybski’s map-territory metaphor and his time-binding notion are
presented here as a potential framework for the explanation of the role of
recursion in biological processes.of cognition. Korzybski’s
self-reflexiveness principle is related to Gregory Bateson’s
‘ecology of mind’ and ‘radical constructivism’ in the
work of Heinz von Foerster and Ernst von Glasersfeld. From this point the
author postulates the possibility of metalogy
as a recursive, topologically
inspired model of the cognition in living systems. Cognition is understood as a
self-referential, circular activity whose topological form avoids solipsism.
Subsequently, the article considers the code-duality principle in biosemiotics
of Jesper Hoffmeyer and Claus Emmeche. Second order code-duality serves as an
explanatory principle for self-as-other-coding,
where a ‘self’ is being established in ontogeny as a form of a
dynamic stability of self- and other-reference on different logical levels,
thus confirming the central role of recursion in the biological processes of
cognitive development.
Metalogy: In-formation (organized complexity) could be considered an outcome of
recursive processes of constructing and stabilizing of our own activities,
which, in turn, serve for developing equilibration inside a biological
cognitive system. If the process of in-formation production is based on
heterarchy of logical levels, then, ‘meta’-levels and recursion
both are necessary pre-conditions to minding/mental processes. In this sense, metalogy frames what Bateson’s metalogues were for - not only a means
to discuss the probem but also to keep the structure of discussion relevant to the subject of
‘heterarchy.’ But can metalogy
be given a topological representation? Or is this an appropriate question?
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