[Fis] TR: What is “Agent”?

[Christophe Menant]

Yes Stan,
the Moreno-Mossio book is an interesting and recent treatment of autonomy but, as the title indicates, it is focused on biological autonomy.
FYI there is also a 2009 paper by Barandiaran & all (some from the Moreno IAS  team) that addresses agency and autonomy in a different way, allowing to consider artificial agents:  "Defining Agency individuality, normativity, asymmetry and spatiotemporality in action". The paper is available at:
 https://xabierbarandiaran.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/barandiaran_dipaolo_rohde_-_defining_agency_v_1_0_-_jab_20091.pdf

Best
Christophe


________________________________
De : Fis <fis-bounces at listas.unizar.es> de la part de Stanley N Salthe <ssalthe at binghamton.edu>
Envoyé : jeudi 19 octobre 2017 21:47
À : Terrence W. DEACON; fis
Objet : Re: [Fis] What is “Agent”?

Here is an interesting recent treatment of autonomy.


Alvaro Moreno and Matteo Mossio: Biological Autonomy: A Philosophical

and Theoretical Enquiry (History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences 12);

Springer, Dordrecht, 2015, xxxiv + 221 pp., $129 hbk, ISBN 978-94-017-9836-5


STAN

On Thu, Oct 19, 2017 at 11:44 AM, Terrence W. DEACON <deacon at berkeley.edu<mailto:deacon at berkeley.edu>> wrote:

AN AUTONOMOUS AGENT IS A DYNAMICAL SYSTEM ORGANIZED TO BE CAPABLE OF INITIATING PHYSICAL WORK TO FURTHER PRESERVE THIS SAME CAPACITY IN THE CONTEXT OF  INCESSANT EXTRINSIC AND/OR INTRINSIC TENDENCIES FOR THIS SYSTEM CAPACITY TO DEGRADE.


THIS ENTAILS A CAPACITY TO ORGANIZE WORK THAT IS SPECIFICALLY CONTRAGRADE TO THE FORM OF THIS DEGRADATIONAL INFLUENCE, AND THUS ENTAILS A CAPACITY TO BE INFORMED BY THE EFFECTS OF THAT INFLUENCE WITH RESPECT TO THE AGENT’S CRITICAL ORGANIZATIONAL CONSTRAINTS.

On Wed, Oct 18, 2017 at 6:00 PM, Koichiro Matsuno <CXQ02365 at nifty.com<mailto:CXQ02365 at nifty.com>> wrote:
On 19 Oct 2017 at 6:42 AM, Alex Hankey wrote:

the actual subject has to be non-reducible and fundamental to our universe.

   This view is also supported by Conway-Kochen’s free will theorem (2006). If (a big IF, surely) we admit that our fellows can freely exercise their free will, it must be impossible to imagine that the atoms and molecules lack their share of the similar capacity. For our bodies eventually consist of those atoms and molecules.

   Moreover, the exercise of free will on the part of the constituent atoms and molecules could come to implement the centripetality of Bob Ulanowicz at long last under the guise of chemical affinity unless the case would have to forcibly be dismissed.

   This has been my second post this week.

   Koichiro Matsuno



From: Fis [mailto:fis-bounces at listas.unizar.es<mailto:fis-bounces at listas.unizar.es>] On Behalf Of Alex Hankey
Sent: Thursday, October 19, 2017 6:42 AM
To: Arthur Wist <arthur.wist at gmail.com<mailto:arthur.wist at gmail.com>>; FIS Webinar <Fis at listas.unizar.es<mailto:Fis at listas.unizar.es>>
Subject: Re: [Fis] What is “Agent”?

David Chalmers's analysis made it clear that if agents exist, then they are as fundamental to the universe as electrons or gravitational mass.

Certain kinds of physiological structure support 'agents' - those emphasized by complexity biology. But the actual subject has to be non-reducible and fundamental to our universe.

Alex



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--
Professor Terrence W. Deacon
University of California, Berkeley

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