2001 Conference (May 27-29)
Vancouver, B.C. Canada |
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AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR CYBERNETICS | |||||||||||||||
Philip Lewin Paradoxes of Cybernetic Praxis
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ABSTRACT:
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The relation of cybernetics and praxis is one of paradox. On the one hand, a cybernetics of praxis is teleonomic in character, underscoring the situated emergence of intentional action. On the other, the praxis of cybernetics is far too often teleologic in character, predefining an end state toward which activity is directed. This paradox between cybernetics and praxis, between teleology and teleonomy, both extends and reproduces a number of related paradoxes posed by a cybernetic perspective. Among these are:
All these (and other) paradoxes arise from a fundamental tension that second-order cybernetics has helped bring forth so that it can be clearly seen, namely, the tension between drift and design, between living within one's situatedness and projecting a future, between two versions of nihilism that are simultaneously two versions of freedom, and two versions of meaning. In my own work, this paradox arises most directly in the tension between ego and soul.
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