Ethics (ethical dynamics) Chapter.4

Our ‘human and social potentialities’ along
with our ‘cognitive (social) structures and
potentialities’ find their life source and
potential for synergy in the characteristics of
living systems - those that give life to our
biological and human universe.
© Abraham Chiasson 1

Chapter 4
Living Systems and Ethical Dynamics - Premise 1
‘Ethics’ = Synergy (+ or -) and, are -
“The ultimate expression and driver of our search for ‘harmony’
within our individual (institutional and societal) self and the
world.”
November 2010 © Abraham Chiasson 2
Ethics /
Synergy
Cognitive
(Social)
Structures
Core Social
Potentialities
(Ind.-Inst.-Soc.)
Cognitive
Potentialities
Core Human
Potentialities
(Ind.-Inst.-Soc.)

Chapter 4
Living Systems and Ethical Dynamics – Premise 2
‘Ethics’ = Synergy (+ or -) and, are -
“The ultimate expression and driver of our search for ‘harmony’
within the universe of living systems.”
Ethics /
Synergy
Cognition
Structural
Coupling
Dissipative
Structures
Autopoiesis

Chapter 4
Living Systems and Ethical Dynamics
Key characteristics of living systems: ‘Mind and body are
and act together’
○ 1. Cognition - continual bringing forth of a world through
the process of living;
○ 2. Living is a network of production processes aimed at
the maintenance of its own integrity -‘autopoiesis’ ;
○ 3. Living systems interact with one another via
structural coupling; and
○ 4. Life results from living in a world of ‘dissipative
structures’ where we must “shift our perception from:
stability to instability, order to disorder, equilibrium to
non-equilibrium, being to becoming”.

Chapter 4
1. Cognition
Some thoughts:
« The interactions of a living system with its
environment are cognitive interactions, and the
process of living itself is a process of cognition. In the
words of Maturana and Varela, 'To live is to know’. » ...
« Cognition, then, is not a representation of an independently
existing world, but rather a continual bringing forth of a
world through the process of living. »
(Fritjof Capra, The Web of Life,p. 267)

Chapter 4
1.Cognition
Some thoughts... :
“…. Cognition ... is rather the enactment of a world and a mind on the
basis of a history of the variety of actions that a being in the world
performs.” (Francisco J. Varela, Evan Thompson and Eleanor
Rosch, The Embodied Mind, MIT Press, p. 9)
“A cognitive system is a system whose organization (individual,
institution or society) defines a domain of interactions in which it
can act with relevance to the maintenance of itself, and the
process of cognition is the actual (inductive) acting or behaving in
this domain.” (Maturana, H., and F. Varela, Autopoiesis and
Cognition: The Realization of the Living, p.13)

Chapter 4
1. Cognition
In the world of cognition, ethical dynamics are:
 Associated with our process of living – of bringing forth
and growing ‘who’ we are -,
 Driven and given a ‘human’ life by the forces
associated with our human potentialities (and, social
potentialities – Ch. 6, 7 & 8) - and, importantly,
 Given ‘structure’ – a capacity for acting and growing -
by our cognitive (social) structures and potentialities.

Chapter 4
1. Cognition
Ethical Issues - For the individual – (applicable also to
institutions and societies) e.g.,
 Is he / she capable of acting in a manner that brings a
sense of congruency and growth to his / her core
human potentialities e.g., for vision and hope?
 Are landscape socio-political dynamics conducive to
growing the self as an effective ‘social’ individual?
 Are landscape ethics capable of creating a synergy of
‘world and mind’, conducive to growth of the
individual’s cognitive potentialities?

Chapter 4
2. Autopoiesis
Some thoughts: Autopoiesis -
"...the organization common to all living systems. It is a network
of production processes, in which the function of each
component is to participate in the production or
transformation of other components in the network.
In this way the entire network continually 'makes itself'. It is
produced by its components and in turn produces those
components. 'In a living system', the authors explain, 'the
product of its operation is its own organization." (Capra,
The Web of Life, p. 98)

Chapter 4
2. Autopoiesis
Some thoughts… :
“…’Social systems use communication as their particular mode of
autopoietic reproduction. Their elements are communications
that are recursively produced and reproduced by a network of
communications and that cannot exist outside of such a
network.’ These networks of communication are self-
generating.
Each communication creates thoughts and meaning, which give
rise to further communications, and thus the entire network
generates itself – it is autopoietic. As communications recur in
multiple feedback loops, they produce a shared system of
beliefs, explanations, and values – a common context of
meaning – that is continually sustained by further
communications.” (Capra, The Hidden Connections, p.83)

Chapter 4
2. Autopoiesis – Our ‘human / living system’ universe
Living Systems
Universe
Socio-Political
Landscapes &
Dynamics
Socio-political
Structures
Cognitive
(Social)
Structures &
Potentialities
Human
&
Social
Potentialities

Chapter 4
2. Autopoiesis - Our ‘human / living system’ universe
Dynamics ...
This network of production processes is driven by the human and social
potentialities of its components via their cognitive (social) structures and
potentialities.
Each component in the network – individuals, institutions & (ultimately) societies
- as socio-political structures, participates in the production of the network
and, of each of the other components via the landscape’s socio-political
dynamics.
The components, and the ‘circle’ itself as a living system, are in a mutually
dependent network of broader production processes (the broken circle).
The components participate in the overall universe of living systems via their
participation in their ‘living system’.
( - will be the object of Chapters 6 – 7 & 8)

Chapter 4
2. Autopoiesis...
Understanding ethics is understanding:
How they affect the ability of the network of individual, institutional
and societal relationships to 'make itself', to afford ever more
sophisticated forms of human expression and to contribute to
human ‘happiness’; and,
How the network’s myriad relationship commitments and qualities -
‘ethics’ - provide for the growth of each of the network’s
components e.g., individuals, institutions, or societies.
From a business perspective, we could ask: how do ethics
contribute to the creation of the network’s entrepreneurial
energy, and to the professional and financial growth of its
actors?

Chapter 4
2. Autopoiesis ...
Ethical issues could be stated as follows:
 Overall, does the synergy between ethics and authority and
power foster the growth of the socio-political landscape i.e.,
the human and social potentialities of the network - via the
growth of its components and, their cognitive (social)
structures and potentialities?
 More specifically, how are the landscape’s ethics affected by
the landscape’s authority and power reality and dynamics
e.g., can they be open, shared and responsible; and,
 Does the synergy of ethics and authority and power open up
the landscape to participation on other landscapes?

Chapter 4
2. Autopoiesis “Overall ...”
“Ethics”
Authority
&
Power
Socio-Political
Landscape
Dynamics
Cognitive
(Social)
Structures &
Potentialities
Human &
Social
Potentialities
Components
Ind. / Inst. /
Society

Chapter 4
3. Structural Coupling
‘Structural coupling’
‘Living and growing’ relationship dynamics – between two living
systems e.g., between individuals, individuals and institutions, and
between institutions and
with society at large.
Structure:
1) Our ‘human and social potentialities’ –
 Individual, institution and society - as living social systems.
2) Our cognitive (social) structures and potentialities –
 ‘Capacities for effective engagement’

Chapter 4
3. Structural Coupling – « Structure »
Core
Human
Potentialities
Vision
/
Hope
Personal
Identity
Consciousness
/
Conscious Will
Sense of
Self
Core
Social
Potentialities
Destiny
/
Accountability
Contribution
/
Capacity
Belonging
/
Empathy
Synergy
/
Connection
Cognitive
Potentialities
Cognitive
(Social)
Structures

Chapter 4
3. Structural Coupling ...
A living system e.g., a human social system - builds its own
distinctive world according to its own distinctive structure.
As Varela and then Fritjof Capra in The Web of Life (p. 269) put it:
 "'Mind and world arise together'. However, through mutual
structural coupling, individual living systems are part of each
other's worlds. ...
 There is an ecology of worlds brought forth by mutually
coherent acts of cognition. ...
 From the perspective of the Santiago theory, intelligence is
manifest in the richness and flexibility of an organism's
structural coupling."

Chapter 4
How does structural coupling work?
« A living system responds with structural changes in its closed,
autopoietic network » (p.269), its resultant structure
importantly embodies the results of its structural coupling
with changes in its structure aimed at a new autopoiesis of
'system and environment', or a capacity to maintain and
grow itself.

Chapter 4
Pattern Structure Process
How does structural coupling work?

Chapter 4
3.Structural Coupling …
Social (human) energies are shaped by and bring about a specific
intentionality or aboutness to a landscape e.g., an emergent
‘ethic’ of fairness, equity, and competitiveness usually embodied
in an ethical structure - aimed at the enactment of a set of
realities and,
Bring a specific – pattern - to the living system’s core structure e.g.,
via a landscape relevant identity – a recognized capacity for
engaging with other components – and,
Provide a specific ‘organization’ pattern to our human and social
potentialities and, cognitive (social) structures and potentialities
- conducive to engaging with other living systems -.
Pattern

Chapter 4
3. Structural Coupling …
Individuals, institutions and societies, go about enacting their world
via their structure i.e., their human and social potentialities, and
cognitive (social) structures and potentialities –
Aimed at relevant changes to their – structure -, those that will via
relationship (ethical) principles and norms grow e.g., their sense
of vision and hope and, from a cognitive perspective more
appropriate ethics or ideologies and,
Provide the individual, the institution or society, with the authority
and power needed to compete and grow their human and social
potentialities, and cognitive (social) structures and potentialities.
Structure

Chapter 4
3. Structural Coupling …
Process focuses on the nature and characteristics – qualities -
of ‘learning and doing’ in a network of relationships and,
Is driven and given life by the landscape’s relationship
commitments and qualities – those that tap into and bring to
life the living system’s emotional and cognitive energies –
and,
Give meaning to our daily activities e.g., what I did turned out
‘good or bad’ and, that bring emotional coloring i.e., feelings,
to what we do and that give us clues as to their
appropriateness.
Process

Chapter 4
3. Structural Coupling … Summary - 1
Pattern Structure Process
Intentionality
(Aboutness)
Human & Social
Potentialities /
Cognitive (social)
Structures and
Potentialities
Learning
&
Doing
Ethical
Structure
“Ethical”
Principles and
Norms
Relationship
Commitments
&
Qualities

Chapter 4
3. Structural Coupling … Summary - 2
Ethical
Structure
“Ethical”
Principles
and
Norms
Relationship
Commitments
&
Qualities
Intentionality
(Aboutness)
Human & Social
Potentialities /
Cognitive (social)
Structures and
Potentialities
Learning
&
Doing
Intentionality
(Aboutness)
Human & Social
Potentialities /
Cognitive (social)
Structures and
Potentialities
Learning
&
Doing

Chapter 4
3. Structural Coupling … Ethical Issues
To what extent are relationship commitments and qualities the result of
shared contribution values (ethical structure) –
 Do they have the potential for enriching a shared ethical structure and
related principles and norms - a shared ethical congruency -;
Are the ethical principles and norms that I bring to structural coupling via
my domain contributions –
 Conducive to growing the institution’s human and social potentialities,
and cognitive (social) structure and potentialities – its structure –; and,
Are the results of the institution’s structural coupling – its resultant realities
 Conducive to growing the landscape’s ethical structure and, of creating
the context for the growth of its actors?

Chapter 4
4. Dissipative Structures
« In classical thermodynamics the dissipation of energy in heat transfer,
friction, and the like was always associated with waste. »
Prigogine’s concept of dissipative structures introduced a radical
change in this view by showing that in open systems dissipation
becomes a source of order.” (Capra, The Web of Life p. 89)
Creating and maintaining our living structure as individuals, institutions
and societies, means that we are capable of receiving, transforming
and dissipating energy e.g.,
 from a social perspective, psychic and emotional energies - those
nourishing and giving life to our core human and social potentialities
i.e., those forces driving our cognitive (social) structures and
potentialities.

Chapter 4
4. Dissipative Structures ...
Therefore, to live is to be a component of a network of dissipative
structures where –
« a living organism is subject to continual flows and change in its
metabolism and, where ‘social’ structures receive and give in their
networks of living social structures i.e., open to change and
transformation – new order ».
Capra emphasizes in his later book, The Hidden Connections:
« This spontaneous emergence of order at critical points of instability is one
of the most important concepts of the new understanding of life. It is
technically known as self-organization and is often referred to simply as
‘emergence’.
It has been recognized as the dynamic origin of development, learning, and
evolution. In other words, creativity – the generation of new forms – is
a key property of all living systems. » (p.14)

Chapter 4
4. Dissipative Structures ...
Energies associated with our human and social potentialities
are‘metabolized’ by our cognitive (social) structures and potentialities
via our socio-political – ethical – dynamics to create an ‘emerging’
order: new social realities
Ethics
Synergy
“Nonequilibrium”
Cognitive
(Social)
Structures &
Potentialities
Dissipative
“Structures”
Ind.-Inst.-Society
Human &
Social
Potentialities
Social
Realities
“Order”

Chapter 4
4. Dissipative Structures – Ethical Issues
“In living systems the order arising from nonequilibrium is far more evident,
being manifest in the richness, diversity, and beauty of life all around us.
Throughout the living world chaos is transformed into order." (Capra, The
Web of Life, p. 190)
Are the ethics ‘driving’ an individual or a community, capable of creating a:
 Constructive synergy of the individual or the community’s human and social
potentialities e.g., for a sense of self and destiny, along with its cognitive
(social) structures and potentialities e.g., for its institutional context and its
aesthetics and knowledge e.g.,
 Towards the creation of a relevant and more pregnant sense of order - ‘new
and more meaningful realities’ - for the individual or the community?
 Or, do societal ethics (socio-political dynamics) create a sense of alienation
e.g., what we sometimes find to be the case with ‘marginalized’ communities
and, what is for them, a meaningless sense of order?

Part I: Ethics and our Human Potentialities
and Social Structures - Summary
Core
Socio-Political
Structures
Cognitive
(Social)
Structures &
Potentialities
‘Ethical Dynamics’
Core Values
Principles and Norms
Relationship
Commitments &
Qualities
Living Systemts Dynamics
Human
(Social)
Potentialities
Socio-Political
Dynamis
(Authority & Power)

Ethics (ethical dynamics) Chapter.4

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