Steps to an ecology of emergence

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Publication Type Journal Article
School or College College of Social & Behavioral Science
Department Psychology
Creator Malloy, Thomas E.
Other Author St. Clair, Carmen Bostic; Grinder, John
Title Steps to an ecology of emergence
Date 2005
Description To begin to take steps to a mental ecology of emergence we first establish two fundamental assumptions from the methodology of transformational grammar-the centrality of human judgment based on direct experience and the proposition that the systematic nature of human behavior is algorithmically driven. We then set a double criterion for understanding any formalism such as emergence: What is formalism X, that a human may know it; and a human, that a human may know formalism X? In the cybernetic sense, the two are defined in relation to each other. In answer to the first question, we examine emergence as a formalism, using Turing's work as a defining case and an NK Boolean system as a specific working model. In answer to the second question, we frame the knowing of emergence in a Batesonian epistemological approach informed by modern developments in discrete dynamic systems. This epistemology specifies mental process as the transformation of differences across a richly connected network. The relational reference point which integrates the two sides of the cybernetic question is human judgment of perceptual similarity which links emergent hierarchies in a formal NK Boolean model to hierarchies of perceptual similarity based on direct experience.
Type Text
Publisher Imprint Academic
Volume 12
Issue 02-Jan
First Page 102
Last Page 119
Subject Emergence; Perceptual Categories; Dynamic Constancy; Hierarchies; Boolean Models; Epistemology; Knowledge; Bateson; Kauffman
Subject LCSH Knowledge, Theory of
Language eng
Bibliographic Citation Malloy, T. E., St. Clair, C. B., & Grinder, J. (2005). Steps to an ecology of emergence. Cybernetics & Human Knowing, 12(1-2), 102-19.
Rights Management (c) Imprint Academic
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 1,484,196 bytes
Identifier ir-main,2784
ARK ark:/87278/s6988rf1
Setname ir_uspace
ID 705152
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6988rf1
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