ON EVOLUTION, COGNITION AND IDEOLOGY: THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Posted on May 3, 2003 by Dave Pollard
Here are a few unselfish memes from people whose work I’m reading that may soon emerge on these pages; perhaps they’ll inspire you, too.

  • Evolution: Stuart Kauffman, The Origins of Order:

We must re-think evolutionary biology. Much of the order we see in organisms may be the direct result not of natural selection but of the natural order selection was privileged to act on. Evolution is not just tinkering. It is emergent order honored and honed by selection.

  • Cognition: Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela, The Tree of Knowledge

Cognition is not a representation of an independently existing world, but rather a continuing bringing forth of a world through the process of living. The interactions of a living system with its environment are cognitive interactions, and the process of living itself is a process of cognition. To live is to know.

  • Ideology: Stanislaw Lec, Polish Holocaust survivor and satirist, quoted in last week’s New Yorker

When smashing monuments, save the pedestals — they always come in handy.

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3 Responses to ON EVOLUTION, COGNITION AND IDEOLOGY: THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

  1. Marie Foster says:
    May 3, 2003 at 12:12

    Dagnabit Dave… How can a reasonably well educated person keep up with someone who seems to be able to read 10 books a week plus write two at the same time.*poke*

  2. Dave Pollard says:
    May 4, 2003 at 09:13

    That’s the same way I feel about Mark Woods, except multiply both numbers by 5.

  3. Marie Foster says:
    May 4, 2003 at 14:06

    Ack… I just visited there. He has one sentence that must have 3 zillion words. *now I have a headache*Interesting site.

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