Nonlinear Waves in Flagella

Lecture Note II (1992) Graduate School of Science Kyoto Universit

Endo-Exo Circulation as a Paradigm of Life: Towards a New Synthesis of Eastern Philosophy and Western Science

What is life? Despite the advanced studies of Western science and the progress of modern technology, we have not yet answered this problem satisfactorily. What is worse, it is a double problem that we cannot realize how we are deeply influenced by the traditional way of Western thinking in attacking the above problem. Owing to the dichotomy of subject (or endo) and object (or exo), together with its corresponding reductionism, we have specified more and more the detailed components of a living system and have also required the reproducibility principle that the living system shows the same responses to the same stimuli under the same conditions. A dichotomy perspective of this kind, which has been central to modern science, stands on the assumption that opposites are mutually exclusive and even contradictory. Contrary to this dichotomy perspective, there is an alternative complementarity perspective typical of Eastern philosophy, which is surprisingly similar to Niels Bohr's complementarity principle in modern physics. It actually suggests that opposites are not mutually exclusive, but merely complementary to one another, because opposites are thought to be only different aspects of the same wholeness. This means that there is no clear distinction between subject (endo) and object (exo). As there is no definitely isolated object, the reproducibility principle is mostly violated. We must therefore pay much attention to the transients — or processes — during the past history of life. On the basis of this complementarity idea, we are encouraged to have a holistic view by integrating fragments of knowledge at various component levels and time scales when investigating the history of life. In this sense, we need a new synthesis of Western science and Eastern philosophy, instead of considering either of them separately. Only then, it is possible to attack the long-standing question: what is life? Along these lines, in the present paper, a process of endo-exo circulation is introduced as an essential paradigm of life. As a living organism is engaged in challenges from both its internal and external environments, it contains unlimited conflicts and oppositions, which in turn must be the driving force for its evolution and development. It is such reconstructive dynamics that can give rise to an identity of the living organism. The resultant identity of life is represented by the Eastern image of the Mandala as an emergent symbol generated by the process of endo-exo circulation

The Origin and Evolution of Life by Means of Endo-Exo Circulation

村瀬雅俊. 歴史としての生命 : 自己・非自己循環理論の構築. 京都大学学術出版会. 2000, 369-376. (ISBN: 4876984034)に所収。付録3"自己・非自己循環理論の提唱"

A Grand Unified Life Theory: An Extension of the Self-nonself Circulation Theory

In Kyoto Manifesto, Masatoshi Murase (2018) discussed "A self-similar dynamic systems perspective of living nature" based on the self-nonself circulation principle (Murase, 2000; Murase, 2008a; b) to investigate self-transcendental behavior beyond the traditional dichotomy of self (or subject) and non-self (or object) typical of Western science. This study extends the self-nonself circulation principle to understand the complex behaviors of "living" nature. The dynamic interactions between the self and non-self are conducted through five successive processes: (1) Negation, (2) Expansion, (3) Convergence, (4) Transference, and (5) Emergence. Based onthe first letters of each process, it is called the 5-NECTE principle. Interestingly, evolution and learning processes would be explained based on the 5-NECTEprinciple (cf. Murase and Mursae, 2020a; b). It is now time to demonstrate thata grand unified theory of life could be described as an extension of the self-nonself-circulation theory (cf. Murase and Mursae, 2020a; b)

国際研究集会「創造性とは何か？－複雑適応系における創発現象－」（YITP-W-08-11）

Date: October 20 (Mon.) － October 22 (Wed.), 2008, Place: Co-op Inn Kyoto Conference Hal

A Simplified Model for Excitability

Lecture Note I (1992) Graduate School of Science Kyoto Universit

Environmental pollution and health: an interdisciplinary study of the bioeffects of electromagnetic fields

As levels of environmental pollution continue to rise, we are confronted by an important question: how does our degraded environment affect our health? This is no easy question to answer: conflicting results of scientific studies and the fact that environmental change is occurring at an unprecedented rate make it very difficult to correlate suspected environmental causes and probable biological effects. This paper attempts to explore the relationship between today’s polluted environment and human health by applying holistic, interdisciplinary and Eastern philosophical perspectives to a comprehensive study of the possible bioeffects of electromagnetic fields