RE: [Fis] 'Locale' Knowledge

From: Koichiro Matsuno <[email protected]>
Date: Tue 27 Jan 2004 - 14:35:37 CET

   Rafael wrote

>we need in science clear concepts and univocity, but as in physics,
>sometimes we take our wishful thinking for the whole of reality and...

   This remark sounds quite eloquent even from the perspective of the
ongoing discussion on autopoiesis. In this regard, I have the discipline
called economics in mind. Although professional economists do not refer to
the term autopoiesis very often, the economy is full of autopoietic spirit
because it is just about the activity of generating its own components for
avoiding its total bankruptcy. If one is the hard-liner neo-classical
economist, the most unequivocal technical term must be exchange of goods and
services of equal value, whatever the value may mean. But, the notion of
equal exchange is a source of headaches.

   Suppose I stopped by a fast food restaurant for a hamburger for my lunch.
The cashier first asked me to pay for it and I paid. Then, the cashier told
her colleague in the kitchen "One hamburger, at the counter-table". The
colleague in the kitchen repeated the same order and put an uncooked
hamburger into the microwave oven. I was impatiently looking over into the
kitchen. Soon after the heating had been over, the cooked hamburger was
carried to the cashier. She then asked me to show her the receipt she had
given me a moment ago. I showed the receipt to her and finally got the
hamburger I wanted. In this episode, the act of exchange was quite
prolonged. I didn't get anything for exchange right at the moment I paid.
What has been in progress is the activity for fulfilling the condition of
equal exchange, but by no means the instantaneous implementation of equal
exchange. The neo-classical economist does not help me much for deciphering
what has been happening over the interval between my prior payment and
getting the hamburger on the tray afterward.

   What I have got from this seemingly everyday experience is that even such
a crispy concept like equal exchange of goods and services is not good
enough to decipher the bottom-line dynamics. This by no means intend to
dethrone the well-polished technical terms already accepted in each
discipline. At issue is the nature of our playground on which what we call
dynamics is to be played.

   Cheers,
   Koichiro

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Received on Tue Jan 27 14:12:54 2004

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