Release Date: 31 March, 1992
Paperback
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From Library Journal
This book was originally a series of lectures by the Chilean coauthors, sponsored by the Organization for American States. It applies science, especially what is known of neural systems, to philosophical questions about human perception and understanding. The arguments are built up methodically, beginning with the origin of life and continuing through the the development of language in humans. The main virtues of the book are its logical approach and its use of examples. However, the style is in many places unnecessarily abstruse. The book will yield profitable discussion for philosophers, social scientists, and some lay readers. Margery C. Coombs, Zoology Dept., Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Spanish
About the Author
Humberto R. Maturana, Ph.D., is a biologist who teaches at the University of Chile. He is also co-author with Dr. Varela of Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Rating 4.0
Another Look at Knowledge.Excellent and superb are words that come to mind while reviewing this work. The authors, Drs. Humberto R. Maturana (biologist, University of Chile) and Francisco J. Varela (Foundation de France Professor of Cognitive Sciences and Epistemology, Paris) attempted and succeeded in providing a clear and concise work in a difficult field. Their goal was to "propose a way of seeing cognition not as a representation of the world 'out there,' but rather as an ongoing bringing forth of a world through the process of living itself."
Knowing how we know, or how we perceive is the subject of this intriguing work. In writing on this subject, the authors present a refreshing and new approach to cognition-one which has dramatic cultural, social and ethical ramifications.
The work, originally published in 1987 and re-released in 1992 as a revised edition, is attractive, colorful and well-illustrated. Unlike many books, whose pictures, graphs and figures merely fill space, each illustration performs a beneficial and needed service. In ten chapters, the reader is led slowly through the concepts and disciplines of perception, classification, heredity, biology, psychology, sociology and philosophy.
Since its initial publication, The Tree of Knowledge has received favorable attention from the public, has been out of stock in most bookstores and has been used as an undergraduate text at the University of California. While stimulating the imagination of readers it has, however, not received the scholarly acclaim it richly deserves.
Dr. Carl Edwin Lindgren, DEd
Former Member of the Royal Institution of Great Britain
A Real "Gem"The entire text is based on the following invalid inference:
1. All knowing is doing and all doing is knowing
2. Therefore, we can't know reality.
They might just as well have argued:
1. I must use my eyes to see the world.
2. Therefore, I can't see the world.Do not forget the partner and the parentHowever Amazon writes "by Humberto Maturana" we cannot forget the other writer (Francisco Varela) dead about three years.Both come from the research started by Stafford Beer in Chile and they are not alone: People as Terry Winograd or Fernando Flores are in the same package and all of them give powerful reasons against the so-called GOFAI (Good-Old-Fashioned-Artificial-Intelligence). Maturana and Varela are not the first but, for sure, they are among the brightest. |
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