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[Perception: behavioral configuration of the object]

H R Maturana1, J Mpodozis

  • 1Departamento Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile.

Archivos De Biologia Y Medicina Experimentales
|January 1, 1987
PubMed
Summary

Perception is not grasping external reality but a dynamic process where living systems interact with their environment. This structural congruence, or adaptation, is key to survival and how observers interpret perceptual objects.

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Area of Science:

  • * Biophilosophy: Explores the fundamental nature of living systems and their interaction with the environment.
  • * Systems Theory: Analyzes living systems as dynamic, structure-determined entities.
  • * Neuroscience: Investigates the biological underpinnings of perception and cognition.

Context:

  • * Traditional views of perception often assume a direct apprehension of external reality.
  • * Living systems are defined as dynamic structure-determined systems, meaning internal structure dictates responses.
  • * The environment cannot 'specify' internal states but can trigger structural changes.

Purpose:

  • * To redefine perception based on the principles of structural determinism in living systems.
  • * To explain how living systems maintain adaptation through structural congruence with their medium.
  • * To challenge cognitive theories that rely on an observer-independent domain of reality.

Summary:

  • * Perception is re-conceptualized not as grasping external reality, but as a process of structural congruence between a living system and its medium.
  • * Living systems are structure-determined; environmental interactions trigger internal structural changes, not direct information reception.
  • * Perception, from an observer's standpoint, involves associating observed behavioral regularities with environmental triggers, defining perceptual objects.

Impact:

  • * Challenges traditional cognitivist and representationalist theories of perception and cognition.
  • * Provides a framework for understanding perception rooted in the intrinsic dynamics of living systems.
  • * Suggests that cognition, including language, is fundamentally tied to observer-dependent distinctions, not an external reality.

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