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Volume 21 · Number 1 · Pages 102–104
< Previous Paper ∙ Next Paper >
The Indifference to Difference: Oiling the Squeaky Hinge

Vincent Kenny

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Abstract

Open peer commentary on the article “A Difference That Makes No Difference: Uncertainty in and of the Observer” by Andrey S. Druzhinin & Diego A. Ramírez. Abstract: Taking Druzhinin and Ramírez’s concerns about certainty and doubt, I propose alternative ways of approaching an understanding of these perennial issues. I make linkages from Wittgenstein to Varela, drawing out the significance of indifference for the search for certainty and epistemic grounding. These issues resolve in terms of embodied shared practices and processes that need no further justification. Indifference is used as a term for the compositional stability that arises through the conservation of organizational invariance in living systems and marks the cybernetic equilibrium by which a system maintains coherence through continual accommodation of difference.

Citation

Kenny V. (2025) The indifference to difference: Oiling the squeaky hinge. Constructivist Foundations 21(1): 102–104. https://constructivist.info/21/1/102 Copy Citation

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References

Bateson M. C. (1972) Our own metaphor. Alfred A. Knopf, New York. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Maturana H. R. & Varela F. J. (1987) The tree of knowledge: The biological roots of human understanding. Shambala, Boston. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Varela F. J. (1976) On observing natural systems: Francisco Varela in conversation with Donna Johnson. CoEvolution Quarterly 10: 26–31   https://cepa.info/4370
Varela F. J. (1979) Principles of biological autonomy. North Holland, New York. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Varela F. J. (1981) Describing the logic of the living: The adequacy and limitations of the idea of autopoiesis (with introductory remarks by Milan Zeleny). In: Zeleny M. (ed.) Autopoiesis: A theory of living organization. Elsevier North Holland, New York: 34–48   https://cepa.info/1908
Varela F. J., Thompson E. & Rosch E. (1996) The embodied mind: Cognitive science and human experience. MIT Press, Cambridge MA. Originally published in 1991. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Wittgenstein L. (1953) Philosophical investigations. Basil Blackwell, Oxford. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar
Wittgenstein L. (1974) On certainty. Basil Blackwell, Oxford. ▸︎ Google︎ Scholar

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