生命与心智的强连续性:自创生理论及其现象学基础

The Strong Continuity of Life and Mind: Theory of Autopoiesis and Its Phenomenological Foundation

虽然有关生命定义的争论已经成为前科学时代的绝唱,但却并不妨碍科学家与哲学家追问有关生命最简单形式的本体论承诺与认识论基础。对此,自创生理论给出了一种区分生命形式与非生命形式的标准。即,如果一个系统可以将外部物质/能量转换为一种内部的自我维持和它自身成分的生产过程,那么这个系统就可以说是有生命的。这种第一人称视角的生命观继承了Heidegger、Merleau-Ponty对理智主义与经验主义的批判,带有浓烈的现象学色彩。自创生理论认为:生物体的世界是组成环境的意义,而意义生成与认知之间存在等价关系。因此,生命与心智之间的强连续性勾连起了心智世界与物理世界之间的断裂。

The term ＂life＂ is too vague and general to define, and the debates around this topic seemly have ended in biological sciences today. However, this does not prevent one can scientifically and philosophically tackle this question by looking at life in its simplest expression on ontological commitments and epistemological standpoints. Maturana and Varela uncover of the autopoietie essence of a living be- ing, and make up the following definition of life in first person perspective： a system can be said to be liv- ing if it is able to transform external matter/energy into an internal process of self - maintenance and pro- duction of its own components. Although they did not mention the application of the phenomenological method, their research approach bears strong phenomenological contours inherited from Heidegger and Merleau - Ponty. The organism＇ s world is the sense it makes of the environment, and living entails sense - making, which equals cognition. Life and mind share a common pattern or organization, and the organi- zational properties characteristic of mind are an enriched version of those fundamental to life. There is the strong continuity of life and mind, and that bridge the gap between subjectivity and physical world.