Self-Managed Grammar

This glossary entry used to be called "Lýsingarháttur nútíðar" (a grammatical term in Icelandic)

square-50cm-spacer.jpg Tidens Naturlære Fig11
square-50cm-spacer.jpg An hourglass

Ultimate Purpose

  • Some religions depict the world as having an ultimate purpose (e.g. the Christian idea of a 'Day of Judgement').
  • However, evolutionary biologists generally tend to refute the idea that Nature is teleological.

Design discourse is teleological

  • Whereas Aristotle's ancient definition of design is strongly teleological, metadesigning welcomes a grammar/discourse/belief system that is more attentive to the present moment than to the future.

square-50cm-spacer.jpg falling-man.png square-50cm-spacer.jpg Falling man

Languaging the present

  • How do living systems sustain themselves?
  • They manage the relationship between their internal identity and how they are perceived.
  • They do so by languaging their equilibrium.
  • In the above sense, as systems, they therefore 'create' themselves.
  • This is what is meant by the idea of autopoiesis.

square-50cm-spacer.jpg Expression Of The Emotions Figure 21
square-50cm-spacer.jpg Man expressing emotion

Languaging one's mood

  • The Icelandic word lýsingarháttur loosely means 'participle' in grammatical terms.
  • So it is usual to distinguish between lýsingarháttur framtíðar (future tense), lýsingarháttur þátíðar (past tense).
  • The notion of lýsingarháttur nútíðar (present tense) therefore raises questions about how one defines the grammatical structure that pertains to one's immediate present.
  • Hence, in Icelandic, lýsingarháttur nútíðar may be translated as 'describing one's mood'.
  • If this is a self-reflexive process, it is also a possible (controversial) way to adapt to one's environment, perhaps for survival purposes.
  • One example is what we call radical optimism.

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