The main intention of this book is to bring together contributions from biology, cognitive science, and the humanities for a joint exploration of some of the main contemporary notions dealing with the understanding of origins in life,mind and society. The question of origin is inseparable from a web of hypotheses that both shape and explain us. Although origin invites examination, it always seems to elude our grasp. Notions have always been produced to interpret the genesis of life, mind, and the social order, and these notions have all remained unstable in the face of theoretical and empirical challenges. In any given period, the central ideas on origin have had a mutual resonance frequently overlooked by specialists engaged in theirown particular fields. As a consequence, this book should be of interest to a wide audi ence. In particular, for all those engaged in the social sciences and the philosophy of science, it is unique document, since bridges to the natural sciences in a mutually illuminating way are hard to find. Whether as a primary source or as inspirational reading, we feel this book has a place in every library. The material comes from an international meeting held in September 13-16, 1987 at Stanford University, organized by F. Varela and J.-P. Dupuy at the request of the Program of Interdisciplinary Research of Stanford University. We are grateful to Rene Girard, the Program Director, for making it possible with the help of the Mellon Foundation.

Autorentext
Francisco J. Varela, 1946 in Chile geboren, studierte Biologie und promovierte an der Harvard University. Er ist Professor für Biologie und Kommunikationswissenschaften und lebt derzeit in Frankreich, wo er Direktor des Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique und leitender Wissenschaftler im Labor für kognitive Neurowissenschaften ist. Zusammen mit Humberto Maturana veröffentlichte er das vielgelesene Buch "Der Baum der Erkenntnis".

Klappentext
The question of origins is inseparable from a web of hypotheses that both shape and explain us. Although origin invites examination, it always seems to elude our grasp. Notions have always been produced which seek to interpret the genesis of life, mind, and the social order, and these notions have all been found to be unstable in the face of theoretical and empirical challenges. In any given period, the central ideas on origin have had a mutual resonance, frequently overlooked by specialists engaged in their particular fields.The main purpose of this truly interdisciplinary book is the drawing together of contributions from biology, the cognitive sciences and the humanities into a joint exploration of some of the main contemporary notions which deal with the understanding of origins in life, mind and society.The book consists of four central chapters (on social organization, symbols and money, life forms and perception) followed by acute and perceptive discussions. The book arose from an international meeting held at Stanford University.

Inhalt
Understanding Origins: An Introduction.- Origins: A View from the Literature.- I: Violence: The Origin of Social Order.- Supplement to Apocalypse: Girard and Derrida.- A Morphogenetic Hypothesis on the Closure of Post-Structuralism.- Girard and the Origin of Culture.- II: The Origin of Money: Symbols and Texts.- The Origin of Money.- Primitive Money, Modern Money.- III: Evolution and the Diversity of Life.- Origins of Order in Evolution: Self-Organization and Selection.- Optimization in Question.- Incorporating Origins into Evolutionary Theory.- The Evolution of Generic Forms.- Is Phylogeny Recapitulating Ontogeny?.- IV: Perception and the Origin of Cognition.- Whence Perceptual Meaning? A Cartography of Current Ideas.- Perception, Connectionism, and Cognitive Science.- The Original and the Copy.- Appendix / Symposium Program and List of Contributors.- Index of Authors.- Index of Names.