Dear All,
I am pleased to invite you to my PhD public defense due to take place on *Friday, March 9, 14:00-16:00* in *D.2.01* (*Promotion room, building D on the main VUB campus, 2nd level)* Hope to see you there, Weaver *_______________________________________________________________________________________________* *Abstract* Vrije Universiteit Brussel Faculty of Arts and Philosophy Doctoral School of Human Sciences Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Studies *Open-Ended Intelligence* by David R. Weinbaum (Weaver) How does thought begin? Where does the thinking subject come from? What is cognition and how do objects of cognition arise? This work addresses these problems first by developing a metaphysical foundation and then applying it to develop an open-ended evolutionary systemic framework. The limitations of representation-based, object-oriented thinking are exposed and a way is sought to overcome them and access thought beyond representation. Based on the works of Bergson, Simondon and Deleuze an alternative metaphysics is proposed, one that replaces the individual as the primary metaphysical element with individuation as a primary metaphysical process and consequently makes difference primal to identity. This paradigmatic shift, it is shown, is the key to going beyond representation and understanding thought and cognition as open-ended, creative processes of self-organization. These formative processes are of a universal scope and precede any kind of representable object, agency, or relation. Specifically they precede the subject-object dichotomy. In bringing forth order from non-order, sense from non-sense, knowledge from the unknown, they manifest open-ended intelligence – a kind of intelligence which is neither purposeful or predictive but rather experimental and productive. Guided by this metaphysical approach and in conjunction with the theory of enactive cognition, population thinking and cybernetics, a framework of distributed systemic cognition is developed. It offers conceptual tools that can be applied to the study of complex systems and situations as they evolve. *Keywords:* *cognition, complexity, difference, enaction, evolution, individuation, intelligence, interaction, metaphysics, metastability, representation, self-organization, sense-making, thought, virtual* -- Cadell ECCO Group (VUB) <http://ecco.vub.ac.be/?q=node/1> Email: [email protected] Website: https://cadelllast.com
