Posthumanism in the Age of Humanism by Edgar Landgraf Gabriel Trop Leif Weatherby

Author:Edgar Landgraf,Gabriel Trop,Leif Weatherby
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA

Figure 9.1 From Steps to an Ecology of Mind, page 499. An example of Bateson’s version of the interlocking of subsystems of feedback loops.

This corresponds to the overarching structure of Hegel’s system of Spirit whereby the many conceptual circuits of the Logic lead to the idea that logic itself is only a part and must engage its other, nature. The philosophy of nature explores evermore complex organisms and their relations, which leads to the emergence of consciousness and social formations, culminating (this is Hegel, after all) in philosophy, i.e., the possibility to reflect on the logic of the process. Spirit, in this first sense, is, what Hegel calls at the end of the Science of Logic, the “circle of circles” (and has a visual echo in Bateson’s modelling of feedback loops):

the science exhibits itself as a circle returning upon itself, the end being wound back into the beginning, the simple ground, by the mediation; this circle is moreover a circle of circles, for each individual member as ensouled by the method is reflected into itself … Links of this chain are the individual sciences [of logic, nature and spirit].25

However, on the other hand, as we see, within Hegel’s overall system of spirit, nature and spirit are assigned separate but related places. That is, as with Bateson’s notion of mind and implied in the title of his book, Mind and Nature, spirit is not just the whole, but also a specific part alongside nature. If we consider spirit and nature independently for a moment, we notice that for Hegel they are structured in the same way. Or, we might say, they are analogies of each other. That should not be a surprise since underlying them is the same logic of dialectical movement and development. Recall, this is why I emphasized the starting point of the system in the Logic: its categories are the tertium comparationis linking nature and spirit. Bateson, referring to his own approach, captures that logic nicely as the “hierarchy of differences which biologists call ‘levels’.”26 And he specifies them as follows: “I mean such differences as that between a cell and a tissue, between tissue and organ, organ and organism, and organism and society.”27 Furthermore, these differences are significant only insofar as they are viewed as parts within larger wholes. Bateson continues: “These are the hierarchies of units or Gestalten [one of Hegel’s important words], in which each subunit is part of the unit of next larger scope. And, always in biology, this difference or relationship which I call ‘part of’ is such that certain differences in the part have informational effect upon the larger unit, and vice versa.”28

To see how such a “hierarchy of levels” works in Hegel, we might consider the opening of the third section of the Encyclopedia Philosophy of Nature. After the first two sections on physics and chemistry (or the versions that existed in the early nineteenth century), Hegel turns to the exploration of “Organics,” or life in all its complexity. Remarkably, he

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