Exploring Connections: The Mind, Community and Environment

University Studies
Patricia Carpenter, Larry Patrick, and Indira Nair
Spring 05

The class will explore the relation between how we understand ourselves, our community, and our environment in light of the emerging understandings of the relatedness of mind, matter, and living systems.   A variety of biological and social sciences research suggests that living systems can be viewed as self-organizing (autopoietic) ‘dynamic systems.’   In each case, the living system is dependent on its environment; more specifically, living systems exist by virtue of mediating their environment.  Moreover, these systems show similarities across many levels of scale, from cells to individuals, and to communities.  This understanding of living processes gives rise to the themes of systems theory and non-linear dynamics.  Viewed from the ‘inside,’ it gives rise to a different understanding of consciousness as embodied and unfolding through life.