Some resonances between Eastern thought and Integral Biomathics in the framework of the WLIMES formalism for modelling living systems

Forty-two years ago, Capra published “The Tao of Physics” (Capra, 1975). In this book (page 17) he writes: “The exploration of the atomic and subatomic world in the twentieth century has …. necessitated a radical revision of many of our basic concepts” and that, unlike ‘classical’ physics, the sub-atomic and quantum “modern physics” shows resonances with Eastern thoughts and “leads us to a view of the world which is very similar to the views held by mystics of all ages and traditions.“ This article stresses an analogous situation in biology with respect to a new theoretical approach for studying living systems, Integral Biomathics (IB), which also exhibits some resonances with Eastern thought. Stepping on earlier research in cybernetics1 and theoretical biology,2 IB has been developed since 2011 by over 100 scientists from a number of disciplines who have been exploring a substantial set of theoretical frameworks. From that effort, the need for a robust core model utilizing advanced mathematics and computation adequate for understanding the behavior of organisms as dynamic wholes was identified. At this end, the authors of this article have proposed WLIMES (Ehresmann and Simeonov, 2012), a formal theory for modeling living systems integrating both the Memory Evolutive Systems (Ehresmann and Vanbremeersch, 2007) and the Wandering Logic Intelligence (Simeonov, 2002b). Its principles will be recalled here with respect to their resonances to Eastern thought

Scientific inquiry and the causes of civil war : the feasibility thesis and beyond

This Master's Thesis uses Collier, Hoeffler, and Rohner's (2009) Feasibility Thesis as a field for a thorough inquiry into the question of how we can best study the causes of civil war. We advocate a pluralist research strategy, with set-theoretic (especially fuzzy-set) methods as a key component, as the most promising strategy for the study of the causes of civil war

The Epigenetic Research Program (EPR): a transdisciplinary approach for the dynamics of knowledge, society - and beyond

'Mit dem 'epigenetischen Zugang' wurde ein einheitliches Forschungsprogramm aufgebaut, das zur Analyse von 'wissensbasierten Prozessen' in einer Unzahl von Bereichen dient. Konkret wurde mit dem epigenetischen Programm bislang auf der einen Seite ein anspruchsvolles 'transdisziplinäres Forschungsprogramm' konstruiert und auf der anderen Seite eine Reihe von Anwendungen im Bereich von Organisationsanalysen oder auch 'Nationalen Innovationssystemen' durchgeführt. Darüberhinaus erlaubt das epigenetische Programm, sich jenseits der gegenwärtig diskutierten Merkmale von 'Wissensgesellschaften' wie der Diffusion von Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien oder der Ausweitung in den traditionellen Stätten der Wissensproduktion - Universitäten und Forschungsinstitute - zu bewegen. Zu guter Letzt sei der Hinweis angebracht, daß gerade die neue Architektur von Wissens- und Informationsgesellschaften innovative Schlaglichter auf Fragen der gesellschaftlichen Ungleichheit wirft und gegenwärtige Problemfelder in diesem Bereich scharf zu akzentuieren vermag.' (Autorenreferat)'With the 'epigenetic approach', an entire research program has been set up which is devoted to the study of 'knowledge-based processes' in human societies - and beyond. More concretely, an epigenetic approach has been built up in which two different areas are addressed and dealt with simultaneously, namely theoretical foundations for the analysis of 'knowledge based processes' and a comparatively large number of empirical applications, ranging from the study of organizations to the level of 'National Innovation Systems'. Moreover, the emphasis on 'knowledge and information societies' is not motivated by current reconfigurations via communication and information technologies or the expansion of 'knowledge generating capacities' beyond the confines of traditional universities or research institutes. Likewise, 'knowledge and information societies' are not conceptualized as a stage beyond socio-economic inequality, contrasting it, for example, to traditional 'class societies', but, once again, as a theoretical approach which offers new insights into the basic structure of current societal disparities.' (Autorenreferat)

On Logic in the Law: Something, but not All

In 1880, when Oliver Wendell Holmes (later to be a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court) criticized the logical theology of law articulated by Christopher Columbus Langdell (the first Dean of Harvard Law School), neither Holmes nor Langdell was aware of the revolution in logic that had begun, the year before, with Frege\u27s Begriffsschrift. But there is an important element of truth in Holmes\u27s insistence that a legal system cannot be adequately understood as a system of axioms and corollaries ; and this element of truth is not obviated by the more powerful logical techniques that are now available

Anticipating Change: Missions and Paradigm Shifts in Emergence

As our global community is in an unprecedented period of rapid change, missiology, being a study of crossing boundaries, plays a critical pathfinder role in anticipating, participating and mediating the change process, for change itself is a temporal boundary. Failure to do so in the past has left the Church and other groups in a position in which they lag change, and have been marginalized and considered irrelevant. Emergence theory is introduced as a new model, in place of Kuhn\u27s pyramid of causality, to describe how change itself has changed, as networks are now the opinion leaders. As well, Emergence theory informs missiology of avenues by which Christianity can help people anticipate, participate, and in particular, mediate temporal boundaries. John Wesley is offered as a case study of how these avenues helped the Methodist movement navigate a previous wave front of change

FORMALITY AND REPRESENTATIONAL RELATIVISM: A CRITICAL PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATION INTO KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION AS ONE TRANSFORMATION OF WESTERN PHILOSOPHY

This paper provides a philosophical discussion of Knowledge Representation [KR], which has become an influential interdisciplinary and technology friendly research field through Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science. While KR appears an increasingly fashionable and subsequently blurred term, it originally emerged out of genuine meta-theoretical considerations. Subsequently, the reconstruction of KR's formal, structural and functional foundations should call for further philosophical evaluation of KR's interdisciplinary and practical potential. The focus is put on KR's logical and semiotical roots, both methodologically and historically, whose exposure prove necessary for a proper understanding and possible criticism of KR's [technological] applicability. The stipulation of analytical symbol theory is new in this context, but nevertheless necessary, as only a more principal semiotic focus may allow an appropriate evaluation of symbolic intelligence, which has to be considered KR's essence

Science as a growing system: A cybernetic essay

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Direct and significant narrations of the Human's past subsume so complex a multitude of problems (historical, anthropological, psychological, epistemological, etc) that, taking exception for some few areas, no formal, quantified and predictive theory of historical reconstitutions (understood in the classical, paradigmatic, sense of physical, quasi-physical or engineering disciplines) has, so far, been constructed. A first step towards overcoming this situation is outlined in the essay. The work is primarily (though not exclusively) devoted to historical/ scientific reconstitutions; special emphasis is laid upon the so called "domain of Natural Science". Throughout it a rather unconventional way of looking upon human's past achievements in that area is proposed, discussed and progressively developed: not as a mere repository of inventions and discoveries (as the usual historical approaches do), not as a simple reproduction of the possible cognitive processes which their authors used' (as the logistic reconstitutions seek) but rather as a cybernetic adaptative learning process (in the sense of G. PASK and H. VON FOESTER). The use of this approach allows, in particular: - to demonstrate that Science may be globally regarded as a (time-"space") growing system; - to give expression to this growth in terms, of an evolutionary model binding the approaches of PIAGET, WALLON, FREUD, HARTMANN etc (in which epistemological, contextual (social), psychological (conscious, unconscious) affective and cognitive paradigms are involved); - to describe this evolution in formal and quantifiable terms (using for it fuzzy "conditioned" automata theories); - to reproduce it in a special purpose cybernetic device (PASK's THOUGHTSTICKER system); - to perform historical experimentation (varying the value of the parameters, relationships and constraints by means of which the system is described). The essay ends with a practical application: the construction of an entailment-mesh of the First (or Greek) Image of Nature.Financial support was obtained from NATO's Research Grants, INIC (Instituto Nacional de Investigaccao Cientifica) and GULBENKIAN Foundation

The delocalisation of meaning

Since the ending of the Cold War from the late 1980s onwards, what has been called the progressive regionalisation of the world has incredibly increased in speed. By holding on to partial and reductive statistics, we can for instance note that in the period from 1990 to 1995, thirty-three agreements pertaining to regional integration had been notified at the international level, while from 1980 to 1989, such agreements did not exceed a dozen (World Trade Organisation (WTO) 1995: 29). This cause-effect relation is particularly clear in the case of Eastern Europe that is, to our knowledge, the most stunning case of a reorientation of trade which has ever happened in a very short period of time, to cite but one aspect of the changes that have happened there. For the majority of cases in Eastern Europe, this reorientation of trade has been made to the detriment of the present Russia and has operated in favour of the European Union (...)

A Comparative Perspective for Functional Application of Scientific Temper in Southern Africa

In celebration of the launch of a journal in India that will be dedicated to the advancement of the notion of scientific temper, it is apt to reflect on the possibilities of the impact that such a notion is likely to have once introduced in countries other than in India. In a country like South Africa, which has its historical, emotional as well as political links with India established through the ideas of great statesmen such as Mahatma Gandhi, one finds similarities as well as differences in its historical development and post-liberation governance practices. A striking communality is that both countries were subjugated to British colonial rule. Both countries went through post-colonial changes that required new governance structures subject to new regulations and policies. New governance choices were made as result of visionary indigenous leaders keen to provide policies appropriate to serve the indigenous society. As a result the new policies were infused with each country’s respective cultural worldviews and histories. One similarity of action between the two countries is the idealised protection of people’s indigenous knowledge systems. A striking difference, however, is the national efforts to protect people’s knowledge, identified as ‘scientific temper’ in India, and the wide ranging, culturally embedded perception of people’s inability of being ‘rational’ in Africa with the resultant disregard for African knowledge systems. This paper will explore this socio-political divide created through the subconscious ‘acceptance’ of people’s apparent inability of being ‘rational’ in Africa against the endorsement of a nation’s ability of ‘being rational’ through a constitutional obligation towards maintaining scientific temper in India