Revisiting Muturana's Genius At Christmas 1999

By Mario deSantis, December 23, 1999

any experience affecting social and individual relationships I have become obsessed with the biological origin of cognition as expressed by Maturana. As

I make reference to any experience affecting social and individual relationships, I am becoming

more and more convinced of Maturana's genius in understanding and explaining our humaness.

My sons Eric and James are attending their university schooling and in our conversations for

explaining their experiences I began first to mention the work of Capra⁽¹⁾⁽²⁾ on the theory of

living systems and now I am referring incessantly to the work of Maturana.

The biological origin of cognition has deep implications in all of our social and individual

learn to
become more cooperative
and creative relationships and its importance is not derived in the intrinsic belief that it is the truth, rather,

its importance is derived from its utilitarian effect in assisting us in building sustainable

organizations where people continuously learn to become more cooperative and creative.

In few layman's words, Maturana says that living is a process of cognition, and that we learn

by languaging, that is by coordinating our behaviour with each other, and by emotioning,

that is responding to our physiology⁽³⁾. Also, he says that we live through our own experiences

as triggered by our own languaging and emotioning, and upon our reflection of such experiences

we build our knowledge and we are what we are at any given time because of our own experiences

in languaging and emotioning⁽⁴⁾.

culturally brainwashed
to think of
an absolute reality This definition of living, as a process of learning as it happens in our experiences through

the recursive processes of languaging and emotioning, appears to be contorted and difficult

to understand at first. And this is so, because we have been culturally brainwashed in seeing

our individual and social relationships in terms of linear thinking where every effect is the

result of specific cause(s), that is we have been culturally brainwashed to think of an absolute

reality out there, away from us, transcendent of ourselves and of our own living.

to be human means to accept ourselves away from our status of power and wealth Languaging and emotioning are fundamental and distinct processes of our living and to be

human means to language and emotion with each other. In a nutshell, to be human means to

accept ourselves away from our status of power and wealth, to strive for the building of healthier

communities, and to find solutions, here in Saskatchewan and elsewhere, to the current political

problems of wars, pollution, prostitution, crime, poverty, alienation and governmental autocracy.

be in
peace
with
themselves As we are approaching Christmas and the new millennium let us not only renew our promise to

have a better world, but let us make a step forward and work hard for the unfolding and creation

of our own future where people can language and emotion with each other, and learn how to

learn more intelligently and be in peace with themselves.

----------A Few Papers, Links and Web Sites Referring to Maturana's Works:

- An Introduction to "Maturana's" Biology,

Lloyd Fell and David Russell

- The Dance of Understanding,

Lloyd Fell and David Russell

-Reality: the search for objectivity or the quest for a compelling argument,

The Irish Journal of Psychology, 1988, 9, 1, 25-82, Humberto R. Maturana, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile

-Site of Jane Cull,

list of some papers by Humberto Maturana and Jane Cull

------------Endnotes:

1.
THE WEB OF LIFE, by Fritjof Capra, Anchor Books, 1996

2.

--

Fritjof Capra: The Theory of Living Systems,

by James deSantis, a paper for a Political Science class at Athabasca University, Alberta. March 1999

3.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Languaging and emotioning: two verbs created by Maturana. Languaging refers to the natural coordination of behaviour among people within the environment. What we call normally language is an abstraction and it is part of languaging. Emotioning refers to bodily predispositions which reveal themselves in our behaviour, for instance love and fear. Emotioning is therefore a generative process linking body and behaviour. If we refer to the self-organization model of autopoiesis, we can say that languaging takes place in the context of our behavioural (or organizational) relationships within the environment, while emotioning takes place in our physiology or structure. NEED OF TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGES IN SASKATCHEWAN: The biological origin of cognition and implications for Education, by Mario deSantis, September 24, 1998

4.
-
-
Maturana's processes of languaging and emotioning are recursive and cyclical, and this is why the author must be repetitive and redundant in presenting succinctly these concepts. Counter intuitive phenomena are normal in living organizations.


*By Mario deSantis, December 23, 1999*

any experience affecting social and individual relationships	I have become obsessed with the biological origin of cognition as expressed by Maturana. As
	I make reference to any experience affecting social and individual relationships, I am becoming
	more and more convinced of Maturana's genius in understanding and explaining our humaness.
	My sons Eric and James are attending their university schooling and in our conversations for
	explaining their experiences I began first to mention the work of Capra⁽¹⁾⁽²⁾ on the theory of
	living systems and now I am referring incessantly to the work of Maturana.

	The biological origin of cognition has deep implications in all of our social and individual
learn to become more cooperative and creative	relationships and its importance is not derived in the intrinsic belief that it is the truth, rather,
	its importance is derived from its utilitarian effect in assisting us in building sustainable
	organizations where people continuously learn to become more cooperative and creative.
	In few layman's words, Maturana says that living is a process of cognition, and that we learn
	by languaging, that is by coordinating our behaviour with each other, and by emotioning,
	that is responding to our physiology⁽³⁾. Also, he says that we live through our own experiences
	as triggered by our own languaging and emotioning, and upon our reflection of such experiences
	we build our knowledge and we are what we are at any given time because of our own experiences
	in languaging and emotioning⁽⁴⁾.

culturally brainwashed to think of an absolute reality	This definition of living, as a process of learning as it happens in our experiences through
	the recursive processes of languaging and emotioning, appears to be contorted and difficult
	to understand at first. And this is so, because we have been culturally brainwashed in seeing
	our individual and social relationships in terms of linear thinking where every effect is the
	result of specific cause(s), that is we have been culturally brainwashed to think of an absolute
	reality out there, away from us, transcendent of ourselves and of our own living.

to be human means to accept ourselves away from our status of power and wealth	Languaging and emotioning are fundamental and distinct processes of our living and to be
	human means to language and emotion with each other. In a nutshell, to be human means to
	accept ourselves away from our status of power and wealth, to strive for the building of healthier
	communities, and to find solutions, here in Saskatchewan and elsewhere, to the current political
	problems of wars, pollution, prostitution, crime, poverty, alienation and governmental autocracy.

be in peace with themselves	As we are approaching Christmas and the new millennium let us not only renew our promise to
	have a better world, but let us make a step forward and work hard for the unfolding and creation
	of our own future where people can language and emotion with each other, and learn how to
	learn more intelligently and be in peace with themselves.



----------A Few Papers, Links and Web Sites Referring to Maturana's Works:
	- An Introduction to "Maturana's" Biology, Lloyd Fell and David Russell

	- The Dance of Understanding, Lloyd Fell and David Russell

	-Reality: the search for objectivity or the quest for a compelling argument, The Irish Journal of Psychology, 1988, 9, 1, 25-82, Humberto R. Maturana, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile

	-Site of Jane Cull, list of some papers by Humberto Maturana and Jane Cull

------------Endnotes:

1.	THE WEB OF LIFE, by Fritjof Capra, Anchor Books, 1996

2. --	Fritjof Capra: The Theory of Living Systems, by James deSantis, a paper for a Political Science class at Athabasca University, Alberta. March 1999

3. - - - - - - - -	Languaging and emotioning: two verbs created by Maturana. Languaging refers to the natural coordination of behaviour among people within the environment. What we call normally language is an abstraction and it is part of languaging. Emotioning refers to bodily predispositions which reveal themselves in our behaviour, for instance love and fear. Emotioning is therefore a generative process linking body and behaviour. If we refer to the self-organization model of autopoiesis, we can say that languaging takes place in the context of our behavioural (or organizational) relationships within the environment, while emotioning takes place in our physiology or structure. NEED OF TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGES IN SASKATCHEWAN: The biological origin of cognition and implications for Education, by Mario deSantis, September 24, 1998

4. - -	Maturana's processes of languaging and emotioning are recursive and cyclical, and this is why the author must be repetitive and redundant in presenting succinctly these concepts. Counter intuitive phenomena are normal in living organizations.