La métaphore initiale de l’intellect général était basée sur la comparaison entre l’organisation machinique du travail et le fonctionnement de l’esprit humain, matériellement réalisé par le cerveau. Dans la littérature théorique, l’intellect général apparaît à la fois comme la structure de connexion entre les connaissances et comme ce qui produit les valeurs. Nous le ré-éclairerons ici à la lumière de la notion d’hétérarchie, qui a émergé des premières théories du réseau neuronal artificiel, pour définir à la fois une structure de (...) connexion et un principe de formation des valeurs. (shrink)

This article develops a sociology of worth that blurs the traditional disciplinary divide between economic value and social values. Through ethnographic study of a new media startup in Manhattan's Silicon Alley, we examine how a new firm in an emerging industry negotiates an uncertain environment where metrics gauging performance remain illusive as the industry itself gropes toward a clearer definition of its content and contours. Faced with complex foresight horizons, new media firms must develop an organizational capacity for learning, innovation, (...) and flexible adaptation to constantly changing requirements. We examine how the clash of evaluative criteria guiding the work of cross-disciplinary project teams becomes a source for innovation and a resource for learning when deliberation across evaluative principles is combined with an organizational and administrative structure that relies on lateral accountability. (shrink)

Although finance is ubiquitous in modern life, its ontological foundation is rarely discussed. This essay considers some key characteristics of finance from a social ontological perspective. It initially argues that money requires some sort of representation, and that financial institutions rely on various forms of cognition as well as documents anchoring representations. From that standpoint, one of the crucial aspects of finance is that it provides reference points through the process of quantification. These reference points are numerical representations that allow (...) people to make comparisons. Comparing numbers inevitably creates different hierarchies. However, a specific hierarchy can become outdated or less significant. In such situations, a heterarchy can be created outside the hierarchy. This essay illustrates the appearance of heterarchy in the recent shift toward impact finance, in which financial hierarchies encompass heterarchical systems that are finally replaced by quantifiable hierarchical metrics. With this example, the present research demonstrates that finance tends to convert heterarchical systems into hierarchical ones by quantification through monetary units. (shrink)

This article claims that, despite its ambivalent relationship with the heterarchical paradigm,A Union of Peoplesis a truly innovative contribution to the complex debate on the European project, especially in the current troubled climate. Its ability to dismantle the prevailing positivist understanding of the interaction between legal orders and to stand out from the overwhelming and often repetitive literature on the philosophy of EU law should be praised. What is especially noteworthy is the idea of “corrective justice.” This notion explains very (...) well the adoption of financial assistance measures as expression of a new form of solidarity, based on the notion of fair redress for a committed wrong, namely the structural deficiencies detectable in the design of the eurozone. (shrink)

In both The Right and the Good and The Foundations of Ethics, W. D. Ross maintains that any amount of the non-instrumental value of virtue outweighs any amount of the non-instrumental value of pleasure or avoidance of pain. The chapter raises two challenges to the status that Ross accords the value of virtue relative to the value of pleasure (pain). First, it argues that Ross fails to provide a good argument for thinking that virtue is always better than pleasure and (...) that it is in any case implausible to think that any amount of virtue (or avoidance of vice) is better than the avoidance of any amount of pain or suffering. Second, it argues that the inflexibility of Ross’s value theory exhibited in his claim about the relative value of virtue produces tension with and mars the attractive heterarchical structure of his theory of rightness or prima facie duties. (shrink)

Ukraine’s “Revolution of Dignity,” spanning both the 2013–2014 protests in Kyiv’s city center and the mass mobilization of grass-roots resistance against Russian aggression in 2014–2015 and thereafter, manifest new interpretations of ideas and philosophical concepts. In the first part of the article we unravel the meaning of the Ukrainian word hidnist – a moniker of the revolution whose significance remains underestimated. In the second part we situate Ukraine’s revolution within a broader context of “modernity” and suggest its individualist foundation may (...) be replaced by a form of “personalism” – an ethic that echoes that of Ukraine’s revolutionaries. In the third part of the article, we delve into the substance of the revolution’s agenda: its protagonists’ promise to build a non-hierarchical community of “fairness”. In the fourth and final section, the main argument of the article is summarized, namely: that the shift from individualism to personalism in social interaction and the transition from hierarchy to heterarchy in power relations, particularly with respect to institutionalizing “fairness,” embodied in the various structures and organizations formed during Ukraine’s Revolution of Dignity, may have been reflective of more comprehensive trends in ideational change affecting European civilization. (shrink)

Among the notions of levels invoked in accounts of biological phenomena, I focus on two: levels of production mechanisms and levels of control mechanisms. I argue that these two notions of level exhibit different characteristics: production mechanisms are organized hierarchically while control mechanisms are often organized heterarchically. I illustrate the differences in these modes of organization by examining production and control mechanisms involved in cell division in Escherichia coli and in circulation of blood in mammals. I conclude by exploring how (...) these two notions of levels can be integrated by adopting a perspective in which organisms are autonomous systems maintaining themselves far from equilibrium. (shrink)

A project conceiving of political assemblages as anything larger than just an object of intellectual history will have to face a question—what is the potential scope and entailments of the idea of political assemblages outside of the very specific late twentieth-century milieu that it was conceived in? And given the present moment, there is also is much more specific question that should well be taken up: what place any project organized as a political assemblage could have in an era of (...) global capitalist accelerated economic inequalities and anthropocentric warming? Drawing on debates in contemporary social and cultural anthropology about Dumont, hierarchy, actor-network theory, and ontology, this essay... (shrink)

Sacred Games, Death, and Renewal in the Ancient Eastern Woodlands Content Type Journal Article Category Review Pages 507-509 DOI 10.1558/jcr.v11i4.507 Authors Sandra Wallace, Artefact Heritage, Po Box 772 Rose Bay, NSW 2029 Journal Journal of Critical Realism Online ISSN 1572-5138 Print ISSN 1476-7430 Journal Volume Volume 11 Journal Issue Volume 11, Number 4 / 2012.

Existing accounts of mechanistic causation are not suited for understanding causation in biological and neural mechanisms because they do not have the resources to capture the unique causal structure of control heterarchies. In this paper, we provide a new account on which the causal powers of mechanisms are grounded by time-dependent, variable constraints. Constraints can also serve as a key bridge concept between the mechanistic approach to explanation and underappreciated work in theoretical biology that sheds light on how biological systems (...) channel energy to actively respond to the environment in adaptive ways, perform work, and fulfill the requirements to maintain themselves far from equilibrium. We show how the framework applies to several concrete examples of control in simple organisms as well as the nervous system of complex organisms. (shrink)

Prema teoriji holona stvarnost se ne sastoji ni od, samo, cjelina, niti od, samo, dijelova, nego od međuprožimajućih cjelina i dijelova, odnosno od holona , koje nalazimo unutar materijalnih i idejnih okvira stvarnosti. S obzirom na to da potpuno izolirani i neinteraktivni entiteti ne mogu opstojati holoni se udružuju, čineći tako zajednice holona, odnosno holarhije. Unutar holarhije naročit značaj imaju holoni s velikim brojem veza prema ostalim holonima. Takve holone nazivamo koncentratorima, s time da možemo razlikovati koncentratore prvog reda i (...) koncentratore drugog reda. U konačnici, ako neki holon zapostavlja svoju dijelost, u cilju dominiranja nad ostatkom holarhije, tada govorimo o neprirodnim hijerarhijama, a ukoliko zapostavlja svoju cijelost, što dovodi do toga da se jednostavno stopi s ostatkom holarhije, tada govorimo o neprirodnim heterarhijama.According to the theory of holons reality does not only consist of parts or wholes, but also from inter-permeating wholes and parts, that is, holons; which are found within material and ideological framework of reality. Given that fully isolated and uninteractive entities cannot exist, holons associate, in this way forming a community of holons, that is, holarchies. Within the holarchy special significance have holons that contains a large number of connections to other holons. Such holons are called hubs, thus we can distinguish first-order hubs and second-order hubs. In the end, if one holon neglects his communion, for the purpose of overdomination over the rest of the holarchy, then we talk about unnatural hierarchies, but if one holon neglects his agency, which leads him to simply fuse with the rest of the holarchy, then we talk about unnatural heterarchies. (shrink)

The work examines the issue of the philosophy of education, in particular, in the system of continuous formation of plastic structures in the mode of uncertainty. The essence of the concept of “philosophy of education”, its interpretation, variants of explanation are determined. The signs and features of the philosophy of education are characterized. Also considered is the historical process of the development of the philosophy of education, the orientation of the philosophy of education towards a certain goal in a certain (...) historical period, the state of the philosophy of education at the current stage, the main goals and tasks of the philosophy of education.During the study, attention is also paid to the concepts of education that exist today. The features of each theory, its manifestations, significance for education in general are determined. At the same time, various approaches to the construction of education and the possibility of their application are considered.In the work, attention is paid to the state of the education philosophy of the EU states at the current stage. Features of the educational process of the European Union, principles, principles are defined. Such categories of EU education philosophy as the freedom of choice of the pupil and student, the right of educational institutions to independently determine the structure and content of educational programs, the validity of knowledge, democracy in the relationship between the teacher and students, education throughout life are studied.At the same time, the educational process of Ukraine is analyzed. The features of the philosophy of the Ukrainian educational system, the practical implementation of certain principles, principles and ideas are highlighted. At the same time, the shortcomings of the educational philosophy of Ukraine are identified, which negatively affect the formation of a coherent and harmonious educational system of our country.The article focuses on the prospects for the development of the philosophy of education in Ukraine. The question of heterarchy, flexible education, own education is considered. Each identified path is characterized and its strengths and weaknesses are identified. At the same time, forecasts are made regarding the further development of education in Ukraine. (shrink)

The implications of Warren McCulloch's 1945 concept of heterarchy are analyzed in terms of human value and motivational systems. The results demonstrate the near-impossibility of predicting behavior on the basis of any hierarchical scheme, or even which among a set of hierarchical schemes will be selected as the basis of a behavioral choice. Thus, for example, people regularly say one thing and do another.

Based on the 〉patchwork〈 as a concept of (political) heterarchy, the paper explores the formal and medial space of M. Brady's collaged group portrait of the 36th US-Senate and House of Representatives (1859). Poised between unity and decomposition, the image constitutes a congenial map of American politics, its specific relationism and 〉proximal distances.〈 However, Brady's subsequent work sees this lose patchwork disintegrate during the Civil War and then solidify under Lincoln's paternal rule.

Based on the ›patchwork‹ as a concept of (political) heterarchy, the paper explores the formal and medial space of M. Brady’s collaged group portrait of the 36th US-Senate and House of Representatives (1859). Poised between unity and decomposition, the image constitutes a congenial map of American politics, its specific relationism and ›proximal distances.‹ However, Brady’s subsequent work sees this lose patchwork disintegrate during the Civil War and then solidify under Lincoln’s paternal rule.

This article inquires whether and to which degree some fundamental traits of the World Wide Web may encourage us to revise traditional conceptions of what constitutes scientific information and knowledge. Turning to arguments for `open access' in scientific publishing and its derivatives (open content, open archives, etc.), contemporary tendencies in `social software' and knowledge sharing, the authors project a new look on knowledge, dissociated with linear notions of cumulation, progression, and hierarchy (e.g. of scientific argument), but related to circularity, (...) class='Hi'>heterarchy, and evolution. Arguing from a medium theoretical perspective, they illustrate their ideas with developments in library science, current debates in epistemology and theories about information architecture, with a particular focus on `unsystematic' folksonomies. (shrink)

This essay argues that stable, heritable, habituated semiotics on one scale of life allows for opportunism, origination, and the solving of novel problems on others. This is grounded in how interpretation is neither caused nor determined by its object, such that success at interpretation simply cannot be defined by any comparison between an interpretation and its object. Rather, an interpretation is a reciprocated incorporation of a living thing and its environment, and successful if it furthers the living, interpreting thing. By (...) applying biosemiotic theory to seemingly disparate studies of parasitic infections, autonomic nervous systems, and social change as well as the classical pragmatic notion that biology, psychology and sociology are disparate approaches to the singular, radically continuous, and perennial question of who am I. I argue that the distinction between voluntary and autonomic behavior is but a ghost of older dualisms, the pseudo-contradictions of matter v. mind, body v. soul, but also self v. not self. Moreover, all such pseudo-contradictions are resolved as scale thick, self-similar examples of semiotic transaction wherein degeneration or habituation on one scale of life allows for generative or novel interaction on another. (shrink)

“Articulate models” subservient to formal intelligence are imagined to be heterarchies of automata capable of performing the “symbolic (quasi-spatial) syntheses” of Luria (1973), where “quasi-spatial” points to the abstract core of spatiality: the symbol productions, combinations, and substitutions of algebraic reckoning. The alleged cognitive role of internal “topographic images” and of “efference copies” is confronted with this background and denied.

Standard views about metaphysical structure presume that if metaphysical structure is hierarchical, any priority ordering of individuals is rigid or situationally invariant. This paper challenges this presumption. The challenge derives from an effort to interpret the kind of metaphysical structure implicit in writings central to the Huayan tradition of Chinese Buddhism. The Huayan tradition views reality as a realm of thoroughgoing interdependence. Close attention to primary sources indicates that this view does not fit comfortably in any of the metaphysical structures (...) familiar from contemporary analytic metaphysics. Accordingly, this paper also develops a conception of metaphysical structure that rejects the standard presumption. Motivation for this conception derives from attending to certain formal analogies between kinds of metaphysical structure and kinds of social organization. These analogies provide guidance for a conception of metaphysical structure as heterarchical or situationally variable. This conception breaks new ground for analytic metaphysics and opens conceptual space for interpreting Huayan metaphysics as a heterarchical variation of foundationalism. (shrink)

Organization figures centrally in the understanding of biological systems advanced by both new mechanists and proponents of the autonomy framework. The new mechanists focus on how components of mechanisms are organized to produce a phenomenon and emphasize productive continuity between these components. The autonomy framework focuses on how the components of a biological system are organized in such a way that they contribute to the maintenance of the organisms that produce them. In this paper we analyze and compare these two (...) accounts of organization and argue that understanding biological organisms as cohesively integrated systems benefits from insights from both. To bring together the two accounts, we focus on the notions of control and regulation as bridge concepts. We start from a characterization of biological mechanisms in terms of constraints and focus on a specific type of mechanism, control mechanisms, that operate on other mechanisms on the basis of measurements of variables in the system and its environment. Control mechanisms are characterized by their own set of constraints that enable them to sense conditions, convey signals, and effect changes on constraints in the controlled mechanism. They thereby allow living organisms to adapt to internal and external variations and to coordinate their parts in such a manner as to maintain viability. Because living organisms contain a vast number of control mechanisms, a central challenge is to understand how they are themselves organized. With the support of examples from both unicellular and multicellular systems we argue that control mechanisms are organized heterarchically, and we discuss how this type of control architecture can, without invoking top-down and centralized forms of organizations, succeed in coordinating internal activities of organisms. (shrink)

This paper compares the two known logical forms of hierarchy, both of which have been used in models of natural phenomena, including the biological. I contrast their general properties, internal formal relations, modes of growth (emergence) in applications to the natural world, criteria for applying them, the complexities that they embody, their dynamical relations in applied models, and their informational relations and semiotic aspects.

This article explores the use of model organisms in studying the cognitive phenomenon of decision-making. Drawing on the framework of biological control to develop a skeletal conception of decision-making, we show that two core features of decision-making mechanisms can be identified by studying model organisms, such as E. coli, jellyfish, C. elegans, lamprey, and so on. First, decision mechanisms are distributed and heterarchically structured. Second, they depend heavily on chemical information processing, such as that involving neuromodulators. We end by discussing (...) the implications for studying distinctively human decision-making. (shrink)

Zusammenfassung Religion in der Großstadt ist ein brennendes Thema, nicht nur für die Forschung. Der Blick auf die Stadt als Hort der Säkularisierung ist durch neue Formen religiöser Präsenz, Debatten um Religion als kulturelles Erbe, durch blutige Pogrome und Erfahrungen der „fundamentalistischen Stadt” erschüttert worden. Der Blick auf Religion und Stadt in der Antike durch die Linse von Numa Fustel de Coulange kann einen unerwarteten Beitrag zur gegenwärtige Debatte liefern: nämlich dann, wenn man einen verengten Blick auf Polisreligion als Staatsreligion (...) überwindet. Der Aufsatz will die These plausibilisieren, dass religiöse Praktiken und Vorstellungen wichtig für die Stabilisierung und weitere Verbreitung von Städten in der Antike waren und sich Religion und Urbanität als zwei Seiten einer Medaille entwickelt haben. In diesem Sinne wird eine Weiterentwicklung des Begriffs „urban religion” als „urbanisierte Religion“ vorgeschlagen. (shrink)

As scholars commonly maintain, the coming of modernity raised the stakes regarding the pursuit of objective truth and inaugurated the critique of error, unfounded beliefs, prejudice, and ideological interest. In our times, postmodernism has turned the weapons of critique against modernity itself and promoted the wholesale rejection of reason; in the aftermath, without any appraisal criteria left, ideological ‘opinions’ keep growing in numbers, get decentralized and multifaceted , and are considered as equivalent voices expressing the different experiences of individuals and (...) local groups. But is this inward and self-destructive turn of critique warranted? Unpacking the relevant arguments one finds many contradictions inside postmodernism, derivative of its peculiar antinomial relations to modernity/modernism. A discussion of the various meanings and forms of the notion of ‘meta-narrative’ demonstrates the weaknesses of both the absolutist (modernist) and radical relativist (postmodernist) positions and points the way toward a moderate, critico-pragmatic understanding of the relationships between, on the one hand, knowledge and critique and, on the other, ideology. (shrink)