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The Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision
Abstract
Over the past thirty years, a new systemic conception of life has emerged at the forefront of science. New emphasis has been given to complexity, networks, and patterns of organisation leading to a novel kind of 'systemic' thinking. This volume integrates the ideas, models, and theories underlying the systems view of life into a single coherent framework. Taking a broad sweep through history and across scientific disciplines, the authors examine the appearance of key concepts such as autopoiesis, dissipative structures, social networks, and a systemic understanding of evolution. The implications of the systems view of life for health care, management, and our global ecological and economic crises are also discussed. Written primarily for undergraduates, it is also essential reading for graduate students and researchers interested in understanding the new systemic conception of life and its implications for a broad range of professions - from economics and politics to medicine, psychology and law.
... The integration of systems thinking into education is on the rise in the United States, especially after its inclusion in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013). Both national and international researchers (Checkland, 1981;Curwen, et al., 2018), scientists (Capra & Luisi, 2014), and theorists (Cabrera & Cabrera, 2015;Senge et al., 2000) argue that systems thinking skils are necessary for addressing the complex problems the world faces-and will continue to face-in an ever-more-integrated world. ...
... Systems thinking is an inherently transdisciplinary view of life that centers on relationships, patterns, connectedness, and context (Davis, et al., 2015). It is prevalent in sciences such as biology and ecology (Capra & Luisi, 2014;Maturana & Varela, 1987), engineering (Checkland, 1994;Madni & Sievers, 2018), psychology and counseling (Chen et al., 2017) business (Checkland, 1994;Gharajedaghi, 2011), and, more recently, pedagogy (Cabrera & Colosi, 2009;Capra & Luisi, 2014;Curwen et al., 2018;Davis et al., 2015). Systems thinking has the potential to help us deal with global crises and protect the flourishing of life on Earth (Capra & Luisi, 2014;Curwen et al., 2018). ...
... Systems thinking is an inherently transdisciplinary view of life that centers on relationships, patterns, connectedness, and context (Davis, et al., 2015). It is prevalent in sciences such as biology and ecology (Capra & Luisi, 2014;Maturana & Varela, 1987), engineering (Checkland, 1994;Madni & Sievers, 2018), psychology and counseling (Chen et al., 2017) business (Checkland, 1994;Gharajedaghi, 2011), and, more recently, pedagogy (Cabrera & Colosi, 2009;Capra & Luisi, 2014;Curwen et al., 2018;Davis et al., 2015). Systems thinking has the potential to help us deal with global crises and protect the flourishing of life on Earth (Capra & Luisi, 2014;Curwen et al., 2018). ...
... In contrast to traditional reductionist approaches, systems thinking assumes, among other things, that systems are dynamic and irreducible, thinking is non-linear, and processes rather than objects are the subject of study (Capra & Luisi 2014). One of the hallmarks of a systems thinking approach is that systems are mapped, allowing for multiple perspectives to be appreciated, and in studying multiple perspectives, multiple conceptual frameworks or epistemologies may be needed (Bawden 1991;Houghton 2009). ...
... Most of this research examines these issues from the perspective of the individual equestrian. However, Figure 1 demonstrates that individual equestrians and horses (who in this study will be viewed as an irreducible horse-human system) act within larger systems such as equestrian organisations and society, which in turn are influenced by often unarticulated assumptions and beliefs (Bronfenbrenner 1979;Capra & Luisi 2014). ...
... Typically, much animal welfare research takes a human-centric standpoint (Fragoso et al. 2023), however, in this study an equine-centric view was adopted to highlight how humans' conceptualisation of welfare positively or negatively affects horse welfare. Moreover, in reporting these results, the authors based their analysis on the data available, which is necessarily incomplete (Capra & Luisi 2014). So, while the data are interpreted using the most up-to-date science available, alternative explanations are possible. ...
More than ever the welfare of horses in equestrian sport is in the spotlight. In response to this scrutiny, one peak body, the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI) has created an Equine Ethics and Wellbeing Commission to protect their sport's longevity. However, for welfare-based strategies to be successful, the conceptualisation of horse welfare must align across various stakeholders, including the general public. The value-laden nature of welfare makes agreement on its definition, even among scientists, difficult. Given little is known about how equestrians conceptualise horse welfare, we interviewed 19 Australian amateur equestrians using a semi-structured format. Systems thinking and the Five Domains Model provided the theoretical framework and informed our methods. Using reflexive thematic analysis, three themes were identified: (1) good horse welfare is tangible; (2) owners misinterpret unwanted horse behaviour; and (3) equestrians publicly minimise horse welfare issues but are privately concerned. Our results highlight participants' conceptualisations of horse welfare do not align with the Five Domains Model; participants' ideal of prioritising horse welfare does not align with their practice; and there is inconsistency between what participants share publicly and what they think privately about horse welfare. These findings can inform the development of programmes to improve ridden horse welfare throughout the horse industry. As a starting point, programmes that provide a safe space for equestrians to explore their private horse welfare concerns, and programmes that build a partnership mindset to facilitate knowledge exchange between all stakeholders are needed.
... • We ignore the context of the larger whole (Capra & Luisi, 2014). ...
... It should be noted that while this approach, often referred to as reductionism or a mechanistic view, has been dominant in Western culture for the past 300 years, since the Scientific Revolution, it had previously competed for prominence with a more holistic view (Capra & Luisi, 2014). In addition, thinking in many other cultures has not focused so heavily on this mechanistic approach (Capra & Luisi, 2014). ...
... It should be noted that while this approach, often referred to as reductionism or a mechanistic view, has been dominant in Western culture for the past 300 years, since the Scientific Revolution, it had previously competed for prominence with a more holistic view (Capra & Luisi, 2014). In addition, thinking in many other cultures has not focused so heavily on this mechanistic approach (Capra & Luisi, 2014). ...
Through the use of a variety of media, Introduction to Sustainability provides a broad overview of the complexity of sustainability through the lens of systems thinking. After a brief look at the modern history of sustainability, it introduces systems thinking and the process of systems mapping. It then moves through the domains of sustainability including environment, economics, social systems, and culture. The latter half of the text applies the learnings from the beginning to specific sustainability challenges and topics such as climate change, fashion, and circular economy. Throughout the book there are links to other resources in order to diversify the voices and expertise provided within the context of the text. In addition, there are reflective prompts and activities that can be used within the context of each chapter.
Accessible here: https://doi.org/10.31542/b.gm.4
... Two concepts are fundamental to systems thinking: (a) A system is different than the sum of its parts, and (b) a system is a unified whole (Meadows, 2008;Magro & van den Berg, 2019;Capra & Luisi, 2014;Systems Innovation, n.d.-b). A systems perspective contrasts with reductionism. ...
... To recognize system paradigms and to focus specifically on social-ecological systems, we have integrated definitions and concepts from three sources (Capra & Luisi, 2014;Meadows, 2008;Open University, 2011) to create our working definition: A system is a perceived, integrated entity with a pattern of organization of interconnecting purpose, structure, and processes that is doing something. We apply this definition to social-ecological systems, but it is not necessarily limited to them. ...
... Perception is experienced through one's integrated body, mind, and spirit-sources that are often disconnected in Western thinking. • pattern of organization: Capra and Luisi (2014) suggest that a pattern of organization can be recognized through the use of three dimensions-purpose, structure, and processes. Thinking in terms of a pattern of organization presents a systemic unity. ...
Social and ecological systems shape the extent to which humans and the rest of nature live together in a state of well-being. In this article, we work with two intertwined paradigms (i.e., worldviews) that underlie our social and ecological systems. We describe these paradigms, their historical roots, and their differing connections to clusters of system science concepts. We then explain how we are using these paradigms and system science concepts as the basis of an evaluation design process to support systems transformation toward a just and ecologically healthy civilization. The connection of this evaluation orientation to the decolonization and Indigenization of our social and ecological systems is woven throughout the article.
... The narrow focus of the Newtonian paradigm has led us to presuppose an isolated subject, separate from the world out there, investigating real-world phenomena by isolating the objects of investigation from their non-linear, complex context, dissecting them into parts and finding linear causal connection between them [25]. This ignorance of the dynamic interrelationships that inevitably results from this fragmenting method of investigation has become characteristic to the age of industrialization [25,26]. ...
... The narrow focus of the Newtonian paradigm has led us to presuppose an isolated subject, separate from the world out there, investigating real-world phenomena by isolating the objects of investigation from their non-linear, complex context, dissecting them into parts and finding linear causal connection between them [25]. This ignorance of the dynamic interrelationships that inevitably results from this fragmenting method of investigation has become characteristic to the age of industrialization [25,26]. ...
... Nature gave way to the machine and spontaneous self-organization gave way to external bureaucratic control. (see also [25,26,30,31,104]). Without bureaucracy, the planning and management of mass production is impossible. ...
One important insight from complexity science is that the future is open, and that this openness is an opportunity for us to participate in its shaping. The bioeconomy has been part of this process of "future-making". But instead of a fertile ecosystem of imagined futures, a dry monoculture of ideas seems to dominate the landscape, promising salvation through technology. With this article, we intend to contribute to regenerating the ecological foundations of the bioeconomy. What would it entail if we were to merge with the biosphere instead of machines? To lay the cornerstones of a bioeconomic utopia, we explore the basic principles of self-organization that underlie biological, ecological, social, and psychological processes alike. All these are self-assembling and self-regulating elastic structures that exist at the edge of chaos and order. We then revisit the Promethean problem that lies at the foundation of bioeconomic thought and discuss how, during industrialization, the principles of spontaneous self-organization were replaced by the linear processes of the assembly line. We ultimately propose a bioeconomy based on human needs with the household as the basic unit: the biocosmos. The biocosmos is an agroecological habitat system of irreducible complexity, a new human niche embedded into the local ecosystem.
... To se může týkat osob (vnímáme jednotlivé lidi bez ohledu na vztahový kontext, ve kterém žijí) nebo různých aspektů prožívání a existence (rozlišujeme například samostatné prvky jako emoce, chování, myšlení atd. a přehlížíme jejich vzájemnou propojenost). Konceptem, který jde proti této tendenci k izolování jevů, může být například "systém" (de Shazer, 1982;Nelson, 2018) či "síť" (Capra & Luisi, 2016). Systém lze chápat jako nějaký soubor prvků (částí), které jsou ve vzájemné interakci a vzájemně se ovlivňují (Ludewig, 1994;Nelson, 2018). ...
... Pokud chceme pracovat s konceptem příčiny, je třeba pečlivě sledovat, zda zapříčiňující jev A vždy v čase předchází způsobený jev B (Harré & Moghaddam, 2016;Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Něco takového je však nereálné v systémech zahrnujících různé zpětnovazebné smyčky, protože v tu chvíli i B ovlivňuje zpětně A -a tím rovněž i samo sebe (Bateson, 2000;Capra & Luisi, 2016). Živé systémy lze proto jen obtížně popisovat jako mechanistické a deterministické, definování "příčin" a "následků" je konstrukce založená na umělém rozdělení prvků komplexních systémů (Cilliers, 2016;Efran et al., 1990), které je naopak třeba vnímat jako celek vzájemně interagujících prvků (Capra, 2004). ...
Přístup zaměřený na řešení 2 je již etablovaný, i když relativně mladý, přístup. Původně vznikl v kontextu psychoterapie a poradenství, ale postupně se šířil do dalších kontextů a profesí jako je koučování, supervize, facilitace, sociální práce apod.3 Vznik tohoto přístupu lze datovat do 80. let minulého století a za jeho tvůrce jsou považování Steve de Shazer, jeho manželka Insoo Kim Berg a jejich další kolegyně a kolegové z Brief Family Therapy Center v Milwuakee (USA). Steve de Shazer patřil k průkopnickým osobnostem, které razily to, čemu dnes můžeme říkat "postmoderní/systemický obrat" v psychoterapii (a dalších profesích) a jak uvidíme dále, tento postmoderní étos hraje v SFBT významnou roli dodnes. Na vznik SFBT jako samostatného přístupu měly vliv především dvě okolnosti. Především oba zakladatelé studovali ve slavném Mental Research Institute v Palo Alto (jejich tamním mentorem a dlouholetým přítelem byl John Weakland) a vliv strategické a komunikační terapie i myšlenek Gregory Batesona byl pro začátky SFBT určující. Dalším výrazným zdrojem inspirace bylo důkladné studium práce Miltona H. Ericksona, fenomenálního (hypno)terapeuta, jehož vliv se zejména uplatnil v důrazu na využití zdrojů, které má klient k dispozici, a na individualizaci terapie podle přání a potřeb jednotlivých klientů. Samotný SFBT přístup se postupně utvářel a měnil, stal se patrně nejlépe výzkumně podloženým přístupem z rodiny postmoderních terapií a zároveň přístupem, který si získal značnou oblibu mezi konzultanty pracujícími v různých kontextech a s různými cílovými skupinami klientů (Franklin et al., 2011; Tarragona, 2008). V tomto textu chci nabídnout ucelený pohled na přístup zaměřený na řešení (SFBT) a to z hlediska jeho teorie i praxe. Obvykle bývá v různých příručkách teorie zmíněna jen velmi stručně a praxe naopak velmi podrobně, což je i příklad knih, na nichž jsem se sám dříve podílel (Zatloukal & Vítek, 2016; Zatloukal & Žákovský, 2019). Zde se snažím poměr otočit a z úvah o teorii SFBT udělat místo krátkého povinného "přílepku" kapitolu, která zahrnuje i praxi SFBT a představuje ji v určitém kontextu. Přesto může být pro čtenáře, kteří hledají spíše praktická vodítka pro uplatnění SFBT v kontextu práce multidisciplinárními týmy, užitečné přeskočit rovnou na druhou kapitolu tohoto textu. 2 Oficiální pojmenování je "krátká terapie zaměřená na řešení" (Solution-Focused Brief Therapy, zkráceně SFBT), někteří autoři vynechávají "krátká", protože když je terapie zaměřená na řešení, pak je obvykle krátká a neplete se to s krátkodobou terapií. Někdy se objevují i označení jako terapie orientovaná na řešení (Solution-Oriented Therapy) nebo neutrálnější praxe zaměřená na řešení (Solution-Focused Practice) nebo přístup zaměřený na řešení (Solution-Focused Approach). V tomto textu bude používán poslední jmenovaný pojem a zkratka SFBT. 3 Vzhledem k šíři kontextů, v nichž se přístup zaměřený na řešení uplatňuje, používám v tomto textu většinou pro označení profesionála, který s tímto přístupem pracuje, neutrální označení "konzultant" nebo "pracovník".-47
... As described by Hein (1972, p. 174) "in the course of its history, mechanism like vitalism became less extreme and the two positions have drawn closer to one another, both sides having made concessions to the insights of the other, and, more important, to the complexity of the phenomena to be explained". Vitalism was scientifically refuted in the early 20th century and the mechanismvitalism controversy was eventually transcended by systems theory and complexity science (Capra & Luisi, 2014). ...
... Mechanistic and vitalist thought patterns still widely abound (Capra & Luisi, 2014;Greco, 2021). In urbanism, they are made visible by the prominent metaphors of the city as a machine or living organism (Lynch, 1984;Solesbury, 2014). ...
The “circular city” is a recent addition to a string of urban sustainability concepts that call for transformative changes in the way we plan, build and (re-)shape cities. However, it is often criticised for its ambiguity. Experimentation is a prevalent mode of urban governance for realising transformative ambitions in the face of deep uncertainty and ambiguity, yet it is highly malleable for diverse (and vested) interests. This conceptual article explores the circular city as a boundary object which can have multiple translations amongst actors working toward a seemingly common goal. Based on examples of circular experimentation in the existing literature, we characterise mechanistic and vitalist worldviews of the circular city—where the former views the city as a controllable mechanical system while the latter likens the city to a living being. We identify contradictions between mechanistic and vitalist tendencies within the visions, networks and learning processes of circular experimentation. We argue that boundary objects can be a useful tool for facilitating a productive dialectic between worldviews in urban experimentation, using contradiction as a driver of change. We conclude with recommendations for facilitating a dialectical approach to experimentation and suggestions for further research.
... There is nothing less at stake than the future of our species, much of the diversity of life, and the continued evolution of consciousness. (Wahl, 2016, p. 25) There is no shortage of research supporting that our current ways of being and acting are unsustainable and are taking us towards an inhospitable, inequitable, and dystopian future (Capra & Luisi, 2014;Fioramonti et al., 2022;Freire, 1985;Mang & Reed, 2012;Meadows et al., 2015;Raworth, 2017). Core to the concept of sustainability is the notion that resources must be managed in a manner that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987, p. 16). ...
... This has merit in a context which is ordered and subject to significant constraints . However, when considering the complexity of systems transformation, it is unlikely that such linearity or causality will stand the test of practice (Capra & Luisi, 2014). Theories of change within the Transition Design ...
Learning Design continues to emerge as a distinct area of professional practice in both corporate and education contexts. This practice must now adapt to meet the challenges of increased expectation of learner experience, an exponential rate of global change, and the need for learning experiences to be future-fit. However, there is a lack of a coherent framework to guide Learning Design practice in addressing these challenges. There is a lack of a framework that supports the learning designer as a leader of change for a thriving future.
This thesis proposes an emergent framework: Leadership by Learning Design. The researcher adopts a pragmatic approach, which draws upon both existing research and professional experience across a range of design related themes including anthro-complexity, future studies, decolonisation, transformational learning, and systems transformation. Key literature in each of these areas is explored, contextualised to Learning Design, then applied in a manner that pushed beyond the boundaries of prevalent practice. Together these themes form an emergent, yet coherent, framework which allows Learning Designers to explore their role as leaders for a thriving future - Leadership by Learning Design.
... Such linear thinking induces false consciousness that is antithetical to revolutionary action. Socio-political transformation calls for not only such bidirectionality, but broad ecological systems thinking; that is inter-or trans-systemic approaches to complex problems (Capra & Luisi, 2014). ...
Questions are currently being posed concerning the implications of the clinical uptake of psychedelics. While enthusiasm surrounds the potential therapeutic benefits of psychedelics and critique surrounds their appropriation to commercial ends, limited attention has been given to the role of psychedelics in generating social transformation. Herbert Marcuse contended radical change requires ‘new imaginaries of liberation’. We consider whether clinical uptake of psychedelics may produce the perceptual shifts necessary to generate social transformation surrounding contemporary alienating conditions. Economic structures contributing to these alienating conditions are highly resistant to change and may neuter psychedelics' revolutionary potential. We illustrate how psychedelics may be instrumentalised: regulating individuals into unjust systems; redirecting psychedelic usage away from therapeutic ends towards productivity; distracting or diverting attention from systemic forms of control; usurping non-ordinary states into the domain of self-care; and fetishistically commodifying psychedelic experience as a consumable. There are, however, reasons to believe that psychedelics, in raising consciousnesses, may prove resistant to co-option. In particular, psychedelics induce perceptual experiences that: challenge the paradigmatic assumptions of industrial society by provoking alternative epistemologies and metaphysics; generate expanded or ecological constructions of selfhood, thereby offering resignifications of meanings, desires, and life potentials; and offer the enriched phenomenological insight into self, other, and world called for in combating ubiquitous social alienation. In this way, psychedelics may induce the revolution in perception necessary to imagine liberatory potentials and spark the desire for collective emancipation.
... [3][4]6). Indeed, as predicted by Alan Watts during the same era as Maslow's (1969) article (TuneIn, 2023), contemporary technocracy has boosted binary and linear ways of knowing at the expense of personal, embodied experiencing (Schneider, 2019) and of a systemic worldview (Capra & Luisi, 2014). It also promotes social conformity at the expense of spontaneity (Schneider, 2019). ...
This special feature centers around Journal of Humanistic Psychology co-founder Abraham Maslow’s 1969 article, “Toward a Humanistic Biology.” My aims for this special feature are to showcase perspectives on and responses to Maslow’s article from the vantage point of the early 2020s by multiple generations and iterations of humanistic psychologists. This serves not only to challenge misconceptions of Maslow—and humanistic psychology in general—as a mere historical relic but also to continue updating and contextualizing our foundational canon to make it relevant to new and future generations while also preserving, and without losing sight of, its core
and the wisdom of our elders. In this introduction, following a review of advancements in psychology since Maslow’s day (including some called for in his 1969 article), I summarize key points and themes from the article and discuss their relevance in today’s society. Then, I identify the limitations in and conundrums posed by some of Maslow’s statements. Finally, I provide a narrative of the 12 articles that follow in this special feature.
... According to systems theory, diversity reassures living systems' resilience (Capra & Luisi, 2014;Low et al., 2002). von Foerster typically urged: always act so as to increase the number of choices (von Foerster, 2003). ...
In living systems, the complex whole that emerges through the multi-level interactions and synergies among the individual constituent parts is able to interact with those parts the very moment they compose it. Depending on the dynamic interplay between them and being in constant dialogue with their wider environment, the whole and the parts are capable of modifying their behavior, adapting, and coevolving. The complex synergies that develop in a far from equilibrium state give rise to a particularly rich and often unexpected collective dynamic behavior. This article is an autoethnographic epistemological inquiry. Through the work and praxis of Petros Polychronis, child psychiatrist, systemic psychotherapist, and director of AKMA for twenty years, and through my relationship with him, I present the main pillars of an epistemology of living systems. The concepts of co-evolution, destabilization, crisis, dissipative structures, strange attractors, bifurcation point, entropy, and rhizome were, among others, for Petros Polychronis not just abstract theoretical conceptions but invaluable practical intervention tools for the empowerment and the sustainability of human systems at the personal and collective level.
Published as:
Brailas, A. (2022). Petros Polychronis and the epistemology of life. Metalogos Systemic Therapy Journal, 41, 1-21.
... This is because predictions about how whole systems behave based solely on elemental components rarely succeed, 'whereas identifying whole system functions invariably makes testable predictions at an elemental level'. Thus their arguments, at least in part, rest on a strong appeal to systems biology (Kitano, 2001;Corning, 2005), with its origins in the ideas and practices of Alexander Bogdanov and general system(s) theory (von Bertalanffy, 1971;Capra & Luisi, 2014). ...
An introduction, overview and discussion are provided for this special issue of the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, entitled ‘Teleonomy in Living Systems’. The introduction offers a brief account of the origin of Colin Pittendrigh’s notion of teleonomy, in many ways comparable to Dobzhansky’s later proposal of ‘internal teleology’, and a subsequent externalist interpretation of the concept by Ernst Mayr which, unfortunately, has remained influential. As part of the growing movement that places organismic purpose, goal-directedness and agency back at the centre
of biology, in June 2021 a 2-day online international meeting was organized by the authors through the Linnean Society of London, under the title Evolution ‘On Purpose’: Teleonomy in Living Systems. Our overview provides a summary, with some commentary, for each of 15 papers presented here. Together with a complementary volume of 18 papers published by MIT Press, they form a selected and extended proceedings. These papers represent scientifically founded views of evolutionary biologists and philosophers of science who seriously question the adequacy of the
neo-Darwinian Modern Synthesis to account for the purposive nature of living systems. Like any other phenomena associated with life, purposive and teleonomic behaviours demand evolutionary explanations and context. Without any recourse to supernatural or non-material processes, various approaches to trying to understand how this goal-directed, teleonomic property of life has influenced the course of evolution are explored
... Some con temporary theorists have adopted the concept of "agency" to characterize this defining biological characteristic (e.g., Kauffman, 2000;Walsh, 2015). Others have adopted Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela's concept of "autopoiesis" (e.g., Capra & Luisi, 2014). However, the basic idea of the organism as an autonomous, self-organized and self-directed agent can be traced back at least to Lamarck, who first proposed that changes in an animal's "habits," stimulated by environmental changes, have been a primary source of evolutionary change over time (Lamarck, 1984(Lamarck, /1809 Noble, 2019.) ...
Although it is now widely accepted that living systems exhibit an internal teleology, or
teleonomy, the full implications of this distinctive biological property have not been sufficiently explored. This volume addresses various aspects of this important phenomenon, including the origins and history of the concept, its scope and meaning, and many of the various ways in which teleonomy has influenced the evolutionary process.
The edited papers presented here result from a Linnean Society of London online conference, Evolution “on Purpose”: Teleonomy in Living Systems, that took place on 28/29 June 2021. Many of the speakers at that event are contributors to this volume, and/or to a special issue of the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society (Vane-Wright & Corning, 2023, volume 139(4): 'Teleonomy in Living Systems'). The 2021 conference, and these proceedings, have largely been inspired by the Third Way of Evolution Group, led by Denis Noble, James A. Shapiro, and Raju Pookottil; and a Royal Society/British Academy meeting, “New Trends in Evolutionary Biology: Biological, Philosophical and Social Science Perspectives,” held in London during November 2016.
... Autopoiesis is based on the theory that living systems consist of a network of processes (production, transformation, and destruction) that create and regenerate themselves [55]. More specifically, the following qualities have been attributed to organisms via the concept of autopoiesis [56]: Self-development (and self-maintenance): aside from obtaining nutrients and expelling waste, living systems autonomously maintain and restore their own structural integrity insofar as is possible (excluding definitive damage, collapse, and death). ...
Effective bioinspiration requires dialogue between designers/engineers, and biologists, and this dialogue must be rooted in a shared scientific understanding of living systems. To support learning from “nature’s overarching design lessons” the Biomimicry Institute has produced ten “Unifying Patterns of Nature”. These patterns have been developed to engage with those interested in finding biologically inspired solutions to human challenges. Yet, although well-intentioned and appealing, they are likely to dishearten biologists. The aim of this paper is to identify why and propose alternative principles based on evolutionary theory.
... Systems thinking has not only provided crucial inspirations at the formative stages of stakeholder theory (Freeman et al., 2010, p. 38) but also retains relevance at its present stage (Freeman et al., 2020, p. 217;Roulet & Bothello, 2021). It is noteworthy that the rise to prominence of the general systems theory in the first half of the twentieth century has been motivated by the perception of the overly reductionist nature of the mechanistic scientific worldview that originated from the Newtonian physics and the Cartesian dualistic philosophy (Capra & Luisi, 2014). The problem of reductionism arose out of the inability of this worldview to come to terms with phenomena of 'organized complexity. ...
Modern stakeholder theory is premised on the ‘integration thesis’, according to which business and ethics constitute an inseparable unity. For many management scholars, this thesis raised the difficult question of how far business can pursue ethical goals without losing its functional autonomy. We address this question by interpreting the integration thesis as the Luhmannian ‘unity of difference’ of business and ethics. This interpretation allows business and ethics to remain conceptually distinct, yet takes their very distinction to constitute a logical and dialectical unity as envisioned by the integration thesis. To justify this interpretation, we draw on the Luhmannian systems theory which accentuates the precariousness of the environment faced by business corporations, and on process philosophy which underscores the unique human capacity to navigate this precariousness by following social norms of ethical behaviour. We argue that a key prerequisite of successful stakeholder management is the activation of this human capacity.
... Here, it is asserted that in order to live sustainably, all three aspects must be taken into consideration [15]. However, [16] discuss sustainability as a system of connections between all aspects of life on Earth. ...
Climate Change and Sustainability Education (CCSE) has been gaining prominence with the imminent climate emergency humanity is facing. This paper draws upon a conceptual framework created to support the development of preservice teachers’ subject knowledge of CCSE whilst undertaking Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programs in England. The core aims and learning outcomes within the framework, namely knowledge; attitudes, values and behaviours; and competences and capabilities, are defined to illustrate what subject knowledge looks like, in this area, for preservice teachers in England. This paper highlights data gathered from 71 preservice teachers via an initial presurvey from three ITE institutions across England. The data were gathered from Early Years and Primary and Secondary phase trainees across both postgraduate and undergraduate programmes. The presurvey captured a range of qualitative and quantitative responses from preservice teachers to showcase priority areas, from their perspective, in the teaching of CCSE. The responses were coded and then themed according to the three aims and learning outcomes of the framework (knowledge; attitudes, values and behaviours; and competences and capabilities) to understand preservice teachers’ views on CCSE at the start of their courses. The findings suggest that preservice teachers lack key subject knowledge in CCSE to teach it effectively in schools. Hence, this paper recommends further work needs to be carried out to embed CCSE work in ITE courses across England. It is further suggested that the CCSE framework highlighted in this paper can act as a key national document to support ITE institutions to conceptualise the teaching and learning of CCSE across their ITE programmes.
... The first conceptual framework shaping the approach I take in this guide is that of systems thinking in a HE context (Capra & Luisi, 2014;Ramage, Magnus & Shipp, 2009;Senge, 1990). Systems thinking is a way of making sense of the complexity of your leadership role by looking at it in a broader systemic context. ...
... A mind that forms adequate ideas through reasoning, understanding, and courage can work to avoid destructive emotions and enable better ideas that lead to positive action: 'the mind is passive only to the extent that it has inadequate or confused ideas' ( [62], p. 101). With our contemporary knowledge of the interdependence of ecological systems, there is a need for all disciplines to start 'thinking in terms of relationships, patterns and context' [63,64]. Thus, there is a clear educational need to strive towards an ethos of caring for each other and the beyond-human world, inviting diverse symbiotic systems to help avoid ecocatastrophe. ...
This chapter argues for the importance of ethical-maker-learning as a transdisciplinary learning system in Higher Education. A new potentially transformative pedagogical concept of Critical Material Literacy (CML) is also proposed, with the aim that no student should leave university as a passive consumer of new technologies and products. Broad pedagogical opportunities are suggested across Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM), and Humanities learning systems. The foundation of this argument is based on in depth maker-learning research, a critique of mainstream maker learning culture, and a move towards more ecological and humanistic concerns in maker processes. Thus, CML-based learning is proposed to teach an awareness of the importance of material matters in our often-passive consumer-led society. An initial transdisciplinary learning model for ethical-maker-learning is presented to provide ideas within this new HE-learning framework for critically and civically engaged experiential learning opportunities across all disciplines.
... What is the status of "Free Will" in this context? ... Addressing these questions will most require interdisciplinary efforts that push further the boundaries of physics [63][64][65][66][67][68]. ...
A theory of everything should not only tell us the laws for matter, gravity, and possibly boundary condition for the universe. In addition, it should specify the relation between theory and experience. Here I argue for a minimal prescription in extracting empirical predictions from path integrals by showing that alternative prescriptions are unjustifiable. In this minimal prescription, the relative probability for one experience is obtained by summing over all configurations compatible with that experience, without any further restriction associated with other experiences of the same or other experiential beings. An application to Wigner's friend settings shows that quantum theory admits objective predictions for subjective experiences. Still, quantum theory differs from classical theory in offering individualized as opposed to collective accounts of experiences. This consideration of experience in fundamental theories issues several challenges to popular quantum interpretations, and points to the outstanding need for a theory of experience in understanding physical theories of everything.
... This is because predictions about how whole systems behave based solely on elemental components rarely succeed, 'whereas identifying whole system functions invariably makes testable predictions at an elemental level'. Thus their arguments, at least in part, rest on a strong appeal to systems biology (Kitano, 2001;Corning, 2005), with its origins in the ideas and practices of Alexander Bogdanov and general system(s) theory (von Bertalanffy, 1971;Capra & Luisi, 2014). ...
An introduction, overview and discussion are provided for this special issue of the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, entitled ‘Teleonomy in Living Systems’. The introduction offers a brief account of the origin of Colin Pittendrigh’s notion of teleonomy, in many ways comparable to Dobzhansky’s later proposal of ‘internal teleology’, and a subsequent externalist interpretation of the concept by Ernst Mayr which, unfortunately, has remained influential. As part of the growing movement that places organismic purpose, goal-directedness and agency back at the centre of biology, in June 2021 a 2-day online international meeting was organized by the authors through the Linnean Society of London, under the title Evolution ‘On Purpose’: Teleonomy in Living Systems. Our overview provides a summary, with some commentary, for each of 15 papers presented here. Together with a complementary volume of 18 papers published by MIT Press, they form a selected and extended proceedings. These papers represent scientifically founded views of evolutionary biologists and philosophers of science who seriously question the adequacy of the neo-Darwinian Modern Synthesis to account for the purposive nature of living systems. Like any other phenomena associated with life, purposive and teleonomic behaviours demand evolutionary explanations and context. Without any recourse to supernatural or non-material processes, various approaches to trying to understand how this goal-directed, teleonomic property of life has influenced the course of evolution are explored.
Today an increasing number of business models claim to be sustainable despite the environmental, social and economic problems that, far from improving, are in fact getting worse. It seems impossible to reach the objectives described in UN’s sustainable development goals (SDG’s) without making deeper changes in the dominating economic paradigm which is based on and driven by profit maximization and promoting economic growth.
The Pluriversal Design Education working group met from April – September of 2021. This publication contains the results of their discussions. This document shares the detailed content that led to the ten Big Ideas shared through the FDE initiative. The document opens with an essay that supports the readers’ understanding of the core concepts that ground the big ideas. This essay was part of a draft that the working group aimed to publish in a journal. This is followed by a detailed description of curriculum content, and finally, the list of the ten Big Ideas is presented. This is a working document, and we look forward to seeing how the pluriversal design community builds on it.
The Future of Design Education working group on Pluriversal Design — with
members from Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, South and Southeastern
Asia, North America, Oceania, and Europe — developed recommendations for
higher education design curricula. The group addresses the dominance of a
Eurocentric design canon and worldwide colonization by a twentieth-century
design monoculture grounded in the concept of universal human experience.
Curricular recommendations honor Indigenous worlds and place-based ways
of being, and chime with anthropologist Arturo Escobar’s premise that every
community practices the design of itself, through participatory processes that
are independent of experts. The authors posit that rather than a Cartesian
rationalist perspective, the group advocates a relational view of situations in
which the design responses to interdependent natural, social, economic, and
technical systems, are specific to places and cultures. The recommendations
assert a pluriversal design imperative in which multiple worldviews thrive and
diverse lived experiences inform the entire field, as well as individual projects.
We show how the dire state of the Earth's rivers entangles intimately with 'thingifying' processes at the heart of colonial modernity. Known in many precolonial and Indigenous contexts as person-like kin, we describe how rivers the world over have been redone primarily as thing-amoral, controllable, a potential commodity like anything else. We develop and work with a provisory concept of kin as those constituents of environments that reciprocally nurture, and contribute to the substance of, one another's life and well-being. We show how kinship with rivers figures centrally in primarily Indigenous-led struggles in various regions of the globe for the recognition and enforcement of river personhood and rights. This is partly because people are motivated to fight passionately for their kin. With some careful caveats, we argue that associating river kinship exclusively with Indigenous worlds undermines its potential for global impact. Thus, as an apposite case study, the latter part of the paper focuses on some of the social-ecological trends which we suggest are opening up the possibility for the re-establishment of 'riverkinship' in the United Kingdom. We reflect on the potential for riverkinship to help cultivate political constellations fitting to the challenges of the Anthropocene.
Qualitative methods in health research are key to understand and integrate the implication of social determinants as they are lived and impact health issues from concerned persons and communities’ perspectives. Specifically, in applied global and public health research, three interconnected stratus can be distinguished: operational research focused on the district and hospital level and its actors; implementation research focused on bringing evidence-based practice to the field and give recommendations at the program level; health systems research which will focus on health systems and policy questions and recommendations that aren’t disease specific. Here we focus giving an overview on qualitative research as it applies to these three levels in global health research. Specifically, we distinguish the classical and more contemporary research methods, the need to integrate a systemic and interdisciplinary perspective, and we propose the realist evaluation method as a key interdisciplinary approach well adapted to research in this setting.KeywordsQualitative methodsApplied global health researchOperational researchImplementation researchHealth systems researchParticipant observationIn-depth interviewsFocus groupsRealist evaluation
The paper presents identification of the main directions and conceptual approaches of methodological support for corporate change management digitalization and improvement of organizations. Within the framework of the study, the prospects of applying the methodology of system-dynamic simulation modeling in the conditions of digital transformation of the economy and management are analyzed. The issues of mastering the areas of growth of the organization and carrying out economically justified transformations, implemented including through the investment management strategy, are investigated within the framework of system-dynamic modeling of economic systems proposed by J. Forrester. The use of such modeling has been carried out to improve organizational forms and increase the efficiency of organizations’ management. The article discusses the current problems and key tasks of digitalization of corporate governance using a systematic approach. The tendencies of improving the methodology of system-dynamic simulation modeling are investigated. The development scheme of the system-dynamic modeling’s stages presented in the classical literature on system dynamics is given. Variants of methodology development based on the synthesis of classical approaches with advanced corporate governance practices and current works of foreign, Russian researchers are proposed. Ultimately the synthesis proposed in the paper will make it possible to create models based on the synthesis of methodologies, and most effectively master the growth’s areas of organizations, as well as to carry out economically justified transformations implemented, including through an investment management strategy.
Husserl envisages transcendental phenomenology as a radically founding science that lays bare the higher-order experiences whereby logic and a theory of science become constituted. On the other hand, according to a usual presentation of Hegel’s philosophy, phenomenology is “logic’s precondition,” and science presents itself as its “result.” This alleged precedence of Hegel’s phenomenology (with its experiential and historical horizons) regarding logic may be a motif behind the current affinities recently traced between Hegelian and Husserlian notions of phenomenology that highlight their views on experience, history, and the lifeworld. This paper offers instead a reconsideration of aspects of their philosophies mostly challenged or dismissed since the rise of positivism: a reappraisal of their views on the relationship between phenomenology, logic, and philosophy as an “absolute” system of sciences. The argument is made that the irreconcilable difference between their projects ultimately stands on the radical contrast between Hegel’s speculative-conceptual method and system of sciences and Husserl’s foundational science and method as experiential-phenomenological all the way through. Despite this methodological abyss, this paper vindicates their affinities in their refusal to segregate science from life, and their attempts to overcome modernity’s inherited fragmentation of culture by providing an all-unifying approach to philosophy.
Introduction
Throughout history, Jewish communities have been exposed to collectively experienced traumatic events. Little is known about the role that the community plays in the impact of these traumatic events on Jewish diaspora people. This scoping review aims to map the concepts of the resilience of Jewish communities in the diaspora and to identify factors that influence this resilience.
Methods
We followed the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology. Database searches yielded 2,564 articles. Sixteen met all inclusion criteria. The analysis was guided by eight review questions.
Results
Community resilience of the Jewish diaspora was often described in terms of coping with disaster and struggling with acculturation. A clear definition of community resilience of the Jewish diaspora was lacking. Social and religious factors, strong organizations, education, and communication increased community resilience. Barriers to the resilience of Jewish communities in the diaspora included the interaction with the hosting country and other communities, characteristics of the community itself, and psychological and cultural issues.
Discussion
Key gaps in the literature included the absence of quantitative measures of community resilience and the lack of descriptions of how community resilience affects individuals’ health-related quality of life. Future studies on the interaction between community resilience and health-related individual resilience are warranted.
Contemporary systems painting directly engages with the material of contemporary culture, not necessarily the technological substrates of computation, social media, the Internet, and artificial intelligence, but the concept of the algorithm and the circulation and patterning of information at the limit of human apprehension. Systems painting emerged as part of the wider category of systems art in the 1960s—a heterogenous collection of artists who were focused on the exploration of social, ecological, and technological systems, and the processes that underpin them. These systemic fields increasingly define and shape our lifeworld in the 21st century, producing an excess of algorithmically generated information. It is, therefore, appropriate to consider the role system painting plays in addressing the conceptual, aesthetic, and affective aspects of information derived from computational, algorithmic, and rule-based processes. This paper discusses the practice of the contemporary systems painter James Hugonin and his series of paintings Fluctuations in Elliptical Form (2015–2021). Karl Popper’s theory of three worlds is introduced, and the concepts of ‘concrete’ and ‘abstract’ objects are described and applied to Hugonin’s painting as a way of understanding the role externalised rules and internal intuitive decisions play in the construction of these complex and visually mesmerising paintings.
Purpose:
To articulate proof of concept in relation to a complex pedagogical values intervention for a range of medical education's historically accumulated symptoms.
Methods:
Using a discursive approach, symptoms that hinder development of medical education are set out. Such symptoms rest with the instrumentality of current pedagogical approaches, supressing potential. A 'cure' is articulated - that the dominant values complex of instrumentalism is raised in quality through embracing ethical, aesthetic, political, and transcendental (meaning) values. Key to this is the use of language in clinical encounters, where the productive metaphor count is repressed in instrumental-technical approaches but multiplied in embracing other values and qualities. This 'Values Prism' model shows instrumentalism passing through an expansive educational prism to create expansion in types and qualities.
Results and conclusions:
Proof of concept is achieved. The Values Prism model can be adapted for any undergraduate medicine curriculum as a process model - a set of values that permeate the curriculum beyond the dominant instrumental. The enhanced and expanded curriculum acts in a translational capacity.
Este Working Paper estudia un proceso: comer, que es un fenómeno complejo. La finalidad consiste en mostrar que coner es mucho más que un fenómno fiskiológico, económico o social, un proceso complejo; esto es, de complejidad creciente. Un trabajo original en el marco de la complejidad.
The autobiographical research is based on a methodology known as “first-person action research”. In what could be articulated as a form of “generating knowledge on the self through experience”, first-person action research puts greater emphasis on relatively unexplored interior perspectives, intentions, and attention as well of the researchers in the modern scientific world. Drawing on transformative principles, which engage theory with practise, and action with reflection, this paper shows the relevance of the action research principles to individual happiness studies. There are different definitions for happiness depending on the terminology and approach from different disciplines such as positive psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience. Life is a mess and multidisciplinary; so is action research. In particular, this paper will consider how the action research methodology has been used in individual happiness research to generate knowledge for inquirer’s own life. The second part of this paper will attempt to unify these experiences with the emerging new science of qualities as a new vision, a new worldview where the purposes, strategies, and practises of the inquirer will be based on the pursuit of a happy life. It will also show how such perspectives can give rise to explorations of ecological selves, which are necessary for the sustainability of a living planet—our beautiful home, the Earth.
KeywordsAction researchBhutan experienceTransformative principlesMultidisciplinary lifeFirst-person action researchIndividual happinessEcological selfSelf-inquiry
This research paper narrates the application of the soft systems methodology (SSM) as a problem structuring tool, as well as the first step of a methodological approach that will provide decision support based on multi-criteria decision analysis in the planning of energy for telecom networks across sub-Saharan Africa. To ensure applicability of the methodology to a real-world issue, an international telecom tower company based in East Africa was selected as the case study. The SSM is utilized to characterize the decision problem context precisely, identify major stakeholder groups and their connections, and to discover each one's interests. This helps to achieve appropriate and holistic energy planning and management unlike the current trends which employ a reductionist approach. The outcome of the work leads to a model using SSM where stakeholder inputs can be captured, for the telecom company.
Abstract
There is a woeful silence in global media as well as a widespread reluctance in the fields of media and communication studies to fully recognize and research the systemic and interlocking nature of deepening existential threats that together now constitute today’s ‘world-in-crisis’. It is time to move beyond disaggregated news reporting and research parochialisms and grapple conceptually and theoretically as well as empirically and politically with the complexity of the planetary emergency and its communication. This article elaborates on these claims and provides conceptual and theoretical coordinates of use in re-imagining mainstream journalism’s potential for processes of transition and transformation.
La crisi climatica si riflette sugli asset dei sistemi produttivi
ed economici con conseguenze sull’equilibrio degli scambi
interni e sulla cooperazione tra Paesi. Periodicamente si af
-
frontano minacce e attacchi con conseguenze sulla stabilità
geopolitica; si assiste allo sfaldamento di forme di governo
e al declino di schemi politici che rappresentavano modelli
acquisiti incrollabili. L’agire o non-agire regressivo abilita il
design alla rigenerazione dei sistemi locali che possono di
nuovo contare sulle proprie risorse tangibili e intangibili; si
definisce il concetto di Bioregione che prevede lo sviluppo di
una economia compatibile con le risorse locali, in linea con
la ricerca From Farm to Clothes, definendo nuovi principi di
circolarità dalla rigenerazione di biomasse vegetali.
Η παρούσα εργασία αποτελεί μια απόπειρα σύνδεσης της εκπαίδευσης στην Συστημική Ψυχοθεραπεία με τη Μετασχηματίζουσα Μάθηση του Mezirow. Βασική κοινή επιρροή αποτελεί η επιστημολογία του G. Bateson, σχετικά με τα επίπεδα μάθησης και την αξία του διαλόγου και των σχέσεων στην εκπαιδευτική διεργασία. Για τη διερεύνηση των δυο αυτών θεωριών, εκπονήθηκε ποιοτική έρευνα, με ημι- δομημένες συνεντεύξεις σε εκπαιδευόμενες στη Συστημική Ψυχοθεραπεία στο εκπαιδευτικό πρόγραμμα του Αθηναϊκού Κέντρου Μελέτης του Ανθρώπου (Α.Κ.Μ.Α.). Στόχος της έρευνάς της ήταν να διερευνηθεί κατά πόσο η συγκεκριμένη εκπαίδευση λειτούργησε μετασχηματιστικά, ακολουθώντας τα 10 βήματα που προτείνει ο Mezirow, αξιοποιώντας της εμπειρίες των εκπαιδευόμενων, σχετικά με της αλλαγές που οι ίδιοι διέκριναν στην επαγγελματική και την προσωπική της ζωή, ως απόρροια της έκθεσής της στη συγκεκριμένη εκπαίδευση. Τα βασικά συμπεράσματα που προέκυψαν από τη θεματική ανάλυση των συνεντεύξεων, ανέδειξαν την ύπαρξη των δέκα βημάτων της Μετασχηματίζουσας Μάθησης καθώς και τον συσχετισμό των δύο θεωριών.
Many developments over the past few decades have undermined the central tenets of the so-called ‘Modern Synthesis’ in evolutionary biology—including its narrow focus on genetic mutations and other molecular level factors as a prime source of innovation in evolution and a deeply competitive model of biological change. It is now apparent that cooperative (synergistic) effects of various kinds, at all ‘levels’ of living systems, have played a major causal role in shaping the overall trajectory of life on Earth, and that living systems themselves have been purposeful participants (‘agents’) and co-developers in this process.
Untruths have been the cause for societal collapse all over the world since civilization began. Untruths can be determined by physics as information deficit, which per definition causes entropy in closed, physical systems, but also in open social systems.
As evidence of our global survival crisis continues to mount, the expression 'too little, too late' comes to mind. We all live in an interdependent world which has an increasingly shared fate. We are participants in an emerging global 'superorganism' that is dependent on close cooperation. Indeed, positive synergy (cooperative effects) has been the key to our evolutionary success as a species. However, our ultimate fate is now in jeopardy. Going forward, we must either create a more effective global society (with collective self-governance) or our species will very likely be convulsed by mass starvation, waves of desperate migrants, and lethal social conflict. The greatest threat we may face is each other, and a regression into tribalism and violent conflict. This Element has a more hopeful prescription for a new global social contract. It is based on the many examples of superorganisms – socially organized species – in the natural world, and in evolution.
此講題的與談主講人楊逸帆，曾是紀錄片導演，目前就讀於東吳大學哲研所碩士班，同時也是日本綜合人間學會理事，為該學會最年輕的理事成員，目前致力於日、台青年學者的跨領域學術交流。其研究關注於利用歐陸反啟蒙工具理性的相關理論來重建中國科學的哲學基礎。
此次論壇當中，逸帆同學將分析解決「現代科學」問題的三條進路之成敗，並透過中國哲學資源反省今日對「科學」的主流標準。在這過程之中，他將檢討胡適、馮友蘭、牟宗三對於「中國沒有科學」的看法，並說明中國哲學的資源，如何讓現代科學獲得進一步的演變。
La valoración económica de los servicios ecosistémicos resulta clave en una época caracterizada por la aceleración del deterioro ambiental ligado al crecimiento económico. Pero aún no existe consenso acerca de los métodos más adecuados, por lo que las propuestas surgidas desde la economía difieren sustancialmente de las provenientes de las ciencias naturales. El objetivo de este trabajo es presentar un avance en una posible integración disciplinar basado en la revisión de las publicaciones en esta área; para tal fin se recurrió al algoritmo Tree of Science (ToS) para compilar y analizar la información obtenida en las bases de datos Web of Science y Scopus. Se obtuvieron 1922 registros consolidados, los cuales permitieron identificar que el año 2017, es el que tiene la mayor cantidad de fuentes. La mayor parte de las investigaciones se generan en pocos países, siendo los países latinoamericanos los más escasos. En conclusión, los trabajos seminales en este tema propenden por una valoración de los servicios económicos, ecológicos y sociales de los ecosistemas, a diferencia de los métodos tradicionales en economía que privilegian los servicios de tipo económico; sin embargo, tales investigaciones apuntan a mantener la valoración en términos monetarios a la manera como se hace en economía. La revisión realizada evidencia la necesidad de hacer investigaciones sobre valoración de SE en Latinoamérica, dadas las peculiaridades ecológicas, económicas y sociales que caracterizan a la región.
De acuerdo con la visión VUCA, la complejidad es una característica más del entorno que rodea a las organizaciones. El presente trabajo trasciende esta visión y despliega el concepto de complejidad precisando distintos factores que condicionan desde el exterior la decisión estratégica de las organizaciones. Sobre esta base, identifica las capacidades reflexivas que permiten definir la estrategia organizacional y hacerla ejecutable. En esta dialéctica entre el adentro y el afuera, el liderazgo estratégico es redefinido como un conjunto de funciones cognitivas superiores. Estas son las funciones más evolucionadas del ser humano y constituyen la máxima expresión del desarrollo cerebral. En definitiva, el ejercicio sistémico y transversal de tales capacidades permite comprender de manera adecuada el entorno y anticiparse a él, así como también salvar los obstáculos que de manera cotidiana obstruyen procesos de necesaria transformación.
Advocates of biotechnology affirm that the application of genetic engineering to develop transgenic crops will increase world agricultural productivity, enhance food security, and move agriculture away from a dependence on chemical inputs helping to reduce environmental problems. This paper challenges such assertions by first demystifying the Malthusian view that hunger is due to a gap between food production and human population growth. Second, we expose the fact that current bio-engineered crops are not designed to increase yields or for poor small farmers, so that they may not benefit from them. In addition, transgenic crops pose serious environmental risks, continuously underplayed by the biotechnology industry. Finally, it is concluded that there are many other agro-ecological alternatives that can solve the agricultural problems that biotechnology aims at solving, but in a much more socially equitable manner and in a more environmentally harmonious way.
1] The Earth's shallow subsurface results from integrated biological, geochemical, and physical processes. Methods are sought to remotely assess these interactive processes, especially those catalysed by micro-organisms. Using saturated sand columns and the metal reducing bacterium Shewanella oneidensis MR-1, we show that electrically conductive appendages called bacterial nanowires are directly associated with electrical potentials. No significant electrical potentials were detectable in columns inoculated with mutant strains that produced non-conductive appendages. Scanning electron microscopy imaging revealed a network of nanowires linking cells-cells and cells to mineral surfaces, ''hardwiring'' the entire length of the column. We hypothesize that the nanowires serve as conduits for transfer of electrons from bacteria in the anaerobic part of the column to bacteria at the surface that have access to oxygen, akin to a biogeobattery. These results advance understanding of the mechanisms of electron transport in subsurface environments and of how microorganisms cycle geologic material and share energy.
From the pioneering explorations of Joseph Banks (later a President of the Royal Society), to the present day, a great deal has been learnt about the extent, distribution and stability of biological diversity in the world. We now know that diverse life can be found even in the most inhospitable places. We have also learned that biological diversity changes through time over both large and small temporal scales. These natural changes track environmental conditions, and reflect ecological and evolutionary processes. However, anthropogenic activities, including overexploitation, habitat loss and climate change, are currently causing profound transformations in ecosystems and unprecedented loss of biological diversity. This series of papers considers temporal variation in biological diversity, examines the extent of human-related change relative to underlying natural change and builds on these insights to develop tools and policies to help guide us towards a sustainable future.
The context of an operational description is given by the distinction between what we consider as relevant and what as irrelevant for a particular experiment or observation. A rigorous description of a context in terms of a mathematically formulated context-independent fundamental theory is possible by the restriction of the domain of the basic theory and the introduction of a new coarser topology. Such a new topology is never given by first principles, but depends in a crucial way on the abstractions made by the cognitive apparatus or the pattern recognition devices used by the experimentalist. A consistent mathematical formulation of a higher-level theory requires the closure of the restriction of the basic theory in the new contextual topology. The validity domain of the so constructed higher-level theory intersects nontrivially with the validity domain of the basic theory: neither domain is contained in the other. Therefore, higher-level theories cannot be totally ordered and theory reduction is not transitive. The emergence of qualitatively new properties is a necessary consequence of such a formulation of theory reduction (which does not correspond to the traditional one). Emergent properties are not manifest on the level of the basic theory, but they can be derived rigorously by imposing new, contextually selected topologies upon context-independent first principles. Most intertheoretical relations are mathematically describable as singular asymptotic expansions which do not converge in the topology of the primary theory, or by choosing one of the infinitely many possible, physically inequivalent representations of the primary theory (Gelfand�Naimark�Segal-construction of algebraic quantum mechanics). As examples we discuss the emergence of shadows, inductors, capacitors and resistors from Maxwell�s electrodynamics, the emergence of order parameters in statistical mechanics, the emergence of mass as a classical observable in Galilei-relativistic theories, the emergence of the shape of molecules in quantum mechanics, the emergence of temperature and other classical observables in algebraic quantum mechanics.
The dipeptide seryl-histidine (Ser-His) catalyses the condensation of esters of amino acids, peptide fragments, and peptide nucleic acid (PNA) building blocks, bringing to the formation of peptide bonds. Di-, tri- or tetra-peptides can be formed with yields that vary from 0.5% to 60% depending on the nature of the substrate and on the conditions. Other simpler peptides as Gly-Gly, or Gly-Gly-Gly are also effective, although less efficiently. We discuss the results from the viewpoint of primitive chemistry and the origin of long macromolecules by stepwise fragment condensations.
Tools to re-sequence the genomes of individual patients having well described medical histories is the first step required to connect genetic information to diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. There is little doubt that in the future, genomics will influence the choice of therapies for individual patients based on their specific genetic inheritance, as well as the genetic defects that led to disease. Cost is the principle obstacle preventing the realization of this vision. Unless the interesting parts of a patient genome can be resequenced for less than $10,000 (as opposed to $100,000 or more), it will be difficult to start the discovery process that will enable this vision. While instrumentation and biology are important to reducing costs, the key element to cost-effective personalized genomic sequencing will be new chemical reagents that deliver capabilities that are not available from standard DNA. Scientists at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution and the Westheimer Institute have developed several of these, which will be the topic of this talk..
In Haiti, a novel approach to nutritional surveillance was developed on the basis of a low-cost, simple-to-repeat set of household surveys in all nine administrative departments using sentinel community sites. This system allows each department to independently conduct follow-up surveys as needed. The results of the first round of surveys conducted in 1995 show lower malnutrition rates in typical food-deficient departments and high levels of malnutrition in several food-surplus areas. Further analyses underscore the importance of variables related to child-care practices and of care-enabling factors such as household food security, health environment, and caregivers' time and education. These findings challenge the traditional thinking among a majority of Haitian policy makers who look at the malnutrition problem solely from the perspective of local food production.
Is it possible for there to be subjectivity without a subject, for conscious states to be truly real while there is no real self or owner that has them? One step toward answering this question involves a further question: is consciousness in some sense reflexive or self-aware? The chapters in this collection investigate the linked issues of egological vs nonegological accounts of consciousness and the reflexivity of consciousness from the diverse perspectives of phenomenology, analytic philosophy, the Buddhist philosophical tradition, and the Indian school of Advaita Vedānta. The resulting dialogue illustrates the enhanced clarity that can be achieved by philosophizing across boundaries. Together the chapters lay out the full range of possible views concerning the nature of the self and proofs of its existence or non-existence, and the full spectrum of positions on the question of consciousness' allegedly self-intimating or self-illuminating nature. In doing so they help clarify just what is involved in giving an account of consciousness that takes subjectivity and the first-person perspective seriously.
Protoplasm from Bryopsis maxima, a coenocytic green alga, was dissociated into two fractions: chloroplasts, and protoplasmic fraction without chloroplasts (PF). The protoplasmic fraction (PF) included nuclei, mitochondria, dictyosomes, endoplasmic reticuli, etc. These two fractions were reassembled and formed protoplasts, which developed into mature plants.
Principles of Embryology By Prof. C. H. Waddington. Pp. x + 510. (London: George Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 1956.) 45s. net.
A review is presented of the use of oscillating chemical reactions for analytical monitoring purposes. Several well-known oscillating reactions, e.g., the Belousov-Zabotinskii (BZ) reaction, Cu oscillators and the peroxidase-oxidase biochemical oscillator, are discussed and the analytical use of the BZ reaction and Cu oscillators, e.g., for metal ion and inorganic anion determinations, is described. The recently introduced analyte pulse perturbation technique is also discussed and its application to routine analytical monitoring, e.g., in food and pharmaceutical analysis, is described (76 references).
The original article to which this Erratum refers was published in Chirality (2001) 13(10) 745–753
Biological systems exhibit molecular handedness: During biosynthesis, predominantly L amino acids rather than D amino acids
are incorporated into proteins. The origins of this handedness remain puzzling. In his Perspective, Bada discusses results
reported by Cronin and Pizzarello in the same issue (p. 951) showing a slight excess of L amino acids in a well-known extraterrestrial object, the Murchison meteorite. This finding
suggests the existence of an enrichment process in cosmochemical environments and could possibly be the source of molecular
handedness on Earth.
From the Proceedings of the meeting Mind and Life XII, 'What is matter, what is life?', held in Dharamsala, India, in 2002, in the presence of His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama
The current conception of Progress is somewhat shifting and indefinite. Sometimes it comprehends little more than simple growth--as of a nation in the number of its members and the extent of territory over which it has spread. Sometimes it has reference to quantity of material products--as when the advance of agriculture and manufactures is the topic. Sometimes the superior quality of these products is contemplated: and sometimes the new or improved appliances by which they are produced. When, again, we speak of moral or intellectual progress, we refer to the state of the individual or people exhibiting it; while, when the progress of Knowledge, of Science, of Art, is commented upon, we have in view certain abstract results of human thought and action. Not only, however, is the current conception of Progress more or less vague, but it is in great measure erroneous. It takes in not so much the reality of Progress as its accompaniments--not so much the substance as the shadow. That progress in intelligence seen during the growth of the child into the man, or the savage into the philosopher, is commonly regarded as consisting in the greater number of facts known and laws understood: whereas the actual progress consists in those internal modifications of which this increased knowledge is the expression. Social progress is supposed to consist in the produce of a greater quantity and variety of the articles required for satisfying men's wants; in the increasing security of person and property; in widening freedom of action: whereas, rightly understood, social progress consists in those changes of structure in the social organism which have entailed these consequences. The current conception is a teleological one. The phenomena are contemplated solely as bearing on human happiness. Only those changes are held to constitute progress which directly or indirectly tend to heighten human happiness. And they are thought to constitute progress simply because they tend to heighten human happiness. But rightly to understand progress, we must inquire what is the nature of these changes, considered apart from our interests. Leaving out of sight concomitants and beneficial consequences, let us ask what Progress is in itself. From the earliest traceable cosmical changes down to the latest results of civilization, we shall find that the transformation of the homogeneous into the heterogeneous, is that in which Progress essentially consists. On passing from Humanity under its individual form, to Humanity as socially embodied, we find the general law still more variously exemplified. The change from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous is displayed equally in the progress of civilization as a whole, and in the progress of every tribe or nation; and is still going on with increasing rapidity. From the law that every active force produces more than one change, it is an inevitable corollary that through all time there has been an ever-growing complication of things. Starting with the ultimate fact that every cause produces more than one effect, we may readily see that throughout creation there must have gone on, and must still go on, a never-ceasing transformation of the homogeneous into the heterogeneous. But let us trace out this truth in detail. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Changing views of health and healing are presented as being part of a larger change of paradigms, which amounts to a profound cultural transformation. Modern scientific medicine is firmly rooted, both in theory and practice, in the mechanistic, Cartesian paradigm. In spite of the great advances of medical science in our century, the limitations of the mechanistic approach to health are now clearly visible and are manifest in the current health care crisis. At the same time, new holistic and ecological approaches to health and healing are now emerging in theory and in practice. These approaches are synthesized in this article in a new conceptual framework that provides a systems view of health based on the recently developed systems view of life. The new systems view of health is profoundly ecological, and thus in harmony with the Hippocratic tradition which lies at the roots of Western medicine.
This review concentrates on models of chemical oscillations, which constitute the self-organization of a system in time without any accompanying organization in space. Keywords (Audience): First-Year Undergraduate / General
History of the cerium / bromate oscillator and the awarding of the 1980 Lenin Prize. Keywords (Audience): Upper-Division Undergraduate
The Belousov reaction provides a fascinating and easily staged lecture demonstration that is suitable for use in conjunction with discussions of free energy and spontaneity or complex reaction kinetics. Keywords (Audience): Upper-Division Undergraduate
The natural genesis of life on Earth is a hypothesis of evolutionary science; it is the task of synthetic organic chemistry to test this hypothesis experimentally. The aim of an experimental aetiological chemistry is not primarily to delineate the pathways along which our (‘natural’) life on Earth could have originated, but to provide decisive experimental evidence, through the realization of model systems (‘artificial chemical life’), that life can arise as a result of the organization of organic matter.
This chapter is an attempt to provide a framework of epistemology to the growing field of synthetic biology (SB). It is preliminarily argued that there are two kinds of SB, one (bioengineering SB) clearly and purposely directed towards one goal set from the start and the other kind being more concerned with basic science and responding to the basic question, “why this and not that?” They need to be considered separately from the point of view of epistemology.
Some basic notions are necessary for this enterprise. One is the clarification between teleology and teleonomy in the synthetic enterprises of nature and mankind; another one is the clarification of the apparent dichotomy between reductionism and emergentism. Preliminarily, one needs an operational definition of life, and the vision given here, based on system biology and autopoiesis in particular, is one in which life is seen as a dynamic integration of parts, which have all to interact with each other in order to give rise to an emergent whole – which is life. Within this framework, SB appears at first sight as reductionism, as most of its operations are based on assembly of bio-bricks, and “cut and paste” of genomic parts, seen often like the components of an electronic circuit. However, the necessary condition to arrive at a novel form of life (the goal of SB) is the integration of parts in the complete unity, which corresponds to life as an emergent property. Emergentism is then the real basis of SB, although the researchers in the field are not always conscious of that. It is also argued that emergence is somewhat linked to bioethical problems, as novel, unexpected and in principle harmful properties may arise from the genetic manipulations. This point is discussed, emphasizing that in general epistemic considerations should be brought more and more to the attention of students as integrant part of their understanding of life sciences.
Recent discoveries in science have led to the recognition that instability and creativity are inherent to our world. This has major implications for the way we perceive the universe and our place in it. In an unstable world, absolute control and precise forecasting are not possible. In this article, Ilya Prigogine traces the emergence of the new worldview provided by science, and suggests that it offers hope and new responsibility for humankind
Molecular hydrogen produced biologically from renewable biomass is an attractive replacement for fossil fuels. One potential
route for biological hydrogen production is the conversion of biomass into formate, which can subsequently be processed into
hydrogen by Escherichia coli. Formate is also a widely used commodity chemical, making its bioproduction even more attractive. Here we demonstrate the
implementation of a formate-overproducing pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a well-established industrial organism. By expressing the anaerobic enzyme pyruvate formate lyase from E. coli, we engineered a strain of yeast that overproduced formate relative to undetectable levels in the wild type. The addition
of a downstream enzyme, AdhE of E. coli, resulted in an additional 4.5-fold formate production increase as well as an increase in growth rate and biomass yield.
Overall, an 18-fold formate increase was achieved in a strain background whose formate degradation pathway had been deleted.
Finally, as a proof of concept, we were able to produce hydrogen from this formate-containing medium by using E. coli as a catalyst in a two-step process. With further optimizations, it may be feasible to use S. cerevisiae on a larger scale as the foundation for yeast-based biohydrogen.
Mouse L929 cells were separated into enucleated cytoplasmic components (cytoplasts) and nucleated subcellular fractions (karyoplasts) in the presence of cytochalasin B. Karyoplasts from cells containing tritiated nuclei were fused, using inactivated Sendai virus, to cytoplasts from cells containing large (1.0-mum diameter) latex spheres in the cytoplasm. Mononucleated cells containing radioactive nuclei and large latex spheres in the cytoplasm were observed among the products of the fusion reaction. Some of these cells were in mitotic configurations. The results indicate that cells capable of undergoing mitosis can be reconstructed from the products of cellular enucleation in the presence of cytochalasin B.
A. mediterranea cells capable of full morphogenesis were reassembled from nuclei, cytoplasm, and cell wall fraction.
Reassembly was performed stepwise with the recombination of cytoplasm and cell walls and finally a nucleus was implanted.
Reassembly of anucleate cells was carried out by means of retransplantation of their own cytoplasm or transplantation of cytoplasm from another cell. Combinations between cytoplasm and cell walls of dark or light maintained cells were prepared. The nuclei were always transferred from light maintained cells.
Catalytic RNAs, or ribozymes, possessing both a genotype and a phenotype, are ideal molecules for evolution experiments in vitro. A large, heterogeneous pool of RNAs can be subjected to multiple rounds of selection, amplification and mutation, leading to the development of variants that have some desired phenotype. Such experiments allow the investigator to correlate specific genetic changes with quantifiable alterations of the catalytic properties of the RNA. In addition, patterns of evolutionary change can be discerned through a detailed examination of the genotypic composition of the evolving RNA population.
Beginning with a pool of 10(13) variants of the Tetrahymena ribozyme, we carried out in vitro evolution experiments that led to the generation of ribozymes with the ability to cleave an RNA substrate in the presence of Ca2+ ions, an activity that does not exist for the wild-type molecule. Over the course of 12 generations, a seven-error variant emerged that has substantial Ca(2+)-dependent RNA-cleavage activity. Advantageous mutations increased in frequency in the population according to three distinct dynamics--logarithmic, linear and transient. Through a comparative analysis of 31 individual variants, we infer how certain mutations influence the catalytic properties of the ribozyme.
In vitro evolution experiments make it possible to elucidate important aspects of both evolutionary biology and structural biochemistry on a reasonable short time scale.
We developed an effective strategy to restrict the amino acid usage in a relatively large protein to a reduced set with conservation of its in vivo function. The 213-residue Escherichia coli orotate phosphoribosyltransferase was subjected to 22 cycles of segment-wise combinatorial mutagenesis followed by 6 cycles of site-directed random mutagenesis, both coupled with a growth-related phenotype selection. The enzyme eventually tolerated 73 amino acid substitutions: In the final variant, 9 amino acid types (A, D, G, L, P, R, T, V, and Y) occupied 188 positions (88%), and none of 7 amino acid types (C, H, I, M, N, Q, and W) appeared. Therefore, the catalytic function associated with a relatively large protein may be achieved with a subset of the 20 amino acid. The converged sequence also implies simpler constituents for proteins in the early stage of evolution.
A possible role that might have been played by ordered clusters at interfaces for the generation of homochiral oligopeptides under prebiotic conditions has been probed by a catalyzed polymerization of amphiphilic activated alpha-amino acids, in racemic and chiral non-racemic forms, which had self-assembled into two-dimensional (2D) ordered crystallites at the air-aqueous solution interface. As model systems we studied N(epsilon)-stearoyl-lysine thioethyl ester (C(18)-TE-Lys), gamma-stearyl-glutamic thioethyl ester (C(18)-TE-Glu), N(alpha)-carboxyanhydride of gamma-stearyl-glutamic acid (C(18)-Glu NCA) and gamma-stearyl-glutamic thioacid (C(18)-thio-Glu). According to in-situ grazing incidence X-ray diffraction measurements on the water surface, (R,S)-C(18)-TE-Lys, (R,S)-C(18)-TE-Glu, and (R,S)-C(18)-Glu-NCA amphiphiles self-assembled into ordered racemic 2D crystallites. Oligopeptides 2-12 units long were obtained at the air-aqueous solution interface after injection of appropriate catalysts into the water subphase. The experimental relative abundance of oligopeptides with homochiral sequence generated from (R,S)-C(18)-TE-Lys and (R,S)-C(18)-TE-Glu, as determined by mass spectrometry on enantioselectively deuterium-labeled samples, was found to be significantly larger than that obtained from (R,S) C(18)-thio-Glu which polymerizes randomly. An efficient chiral amplification was obtained in the polymerization of non-racemic mixtures of C(18)-Glu-NCA since the monomer molecules in the racemic 2D crystallites are oriented such that the reaction occurs between heterochiral molecules related by glide symmetry to yield heterochiral oligopeptides whereas the enantiomer in excess, in the enantiomorphous crystallites, yield oligopeptides of a single handedness.
This article revisits the concept of autopoiesis and examines its relation to cognition and life. We present a mathematical model of a 3D tesselation automaton, considered as a minimal example of autopoiesis. This leads us to a thesis T1: "An autopoietic system can be described as a random dynamical system, which is defined only within its organized autopoietic domain." We propose a modified definition of autopoiesis: "An autopoietic system is a network of processes that produces the components that reproduce the network, and that also regulates the boundary conditions necessary for its ongoing existence as a network." We also propose a definition of cognition: "A system is cognitive if and only if sensory inputs serve to trigger actions in a specific way, so as to satisfy a viability constraint." It follows from these definitions that the concepts of autopoiesis and cognition, although deeply related in their connection with the regulation of the boundary conditions of the system, are not immediately identical: a system can be autopoietic without being cognitive, and cognitive without being autopoietic. Finally, we propose a thesis T2: "A system that is both autopoietic and cognitive is a living system."
This paper examines two questions related to autopoiesis as a theory for minimal life: (i) the relation between autopoiesis and cognition; and (ii) the question as to whether autopoiesis is the necessary and sufficient condition for life. First, we consider the concept of cognition in the spirit of Maturana and Varela: in contradistinction to the representationalistic point of view, cognition is construed as interaction between and mutual definition of a living unit and its environment. The most direct form of cognition for a cell is thus metabolism itself, which necessarily implies exchange with the environment and therefore a simultaneous coming to being for the organism and for the environment. A second level of cognition is recognized in the adaptation of the living unit to new foreign molecules, by way of a change in its metabolic pattern. We draw here an analogy with the ideas developed by Piaget, who recognizes in cognition the two distinct steps of assimilation and accommodation. While assimilation is the equivalent of uptake and exchange of usual metabolites, accommodation corresponds to biological adaptation, which in turn is the basis for evolution. By comparing a micro-organism with a vesicle that uptakes a precursor for its own self-reproduction, we arrive at the conclusion that (a) the very lowest level of cognition is the condition for life, and (b) the lowest level of cognition does not reduce to the lowest level of autopoiesis. As a consequence, autopoiesis alone is only a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for life. The broader consequences of this analysis of cognition for minimal living systems are considered.
Between the nano- and micrometre scales, the collective behaviour of matter can give rise to startling emergent properties that hint at the nexus between biology and physics.
I survey physics theories involving parallel universes, which form a natural four-level hierarchy of multiverses allowing progressively greater diversity. Level I: A generic prediction of inflation is an infinite ergodic universe, which contains Hubble volumes realizing all initial conditions - including an identical copy of you about 10^{10^29} meters away. Level II: In chaotic inflation, other thermalized regions may have different effective physical constants, dimensionality and particle content. Level III: In unitary quantum mechanics, other branches of the wavefunction add nothing qualitatively new, which is ironic given that this level has historically been the most controversial. Level IV: Other mathematical structures give different fundamental equations of physics. The key question is not whether parallel universes exist (Level I is the uncontroversial cosmological concordance model), but how many levels there are. I discuss how multiverse models can be falsified and argue that there is a severe "measure problem" that must be solved to make testable predictions at levels II-IV.