Quotes 2017 (extra)

"Deleuze and Guattari differ from von Uexküll, Ruyer, and Maturana and Varela on key points. To counter the mechanistic tendency in much biologic thought, von Uexküll stresses subjects and meaning in biology, Ruyer equates living form with consciousness, and Maturana and Varela living systems as cognitive ones. Deleuze and Guattari likewise reject mechanistic models, but they also avoid any terminology that might reintroduce the problematics of subjectivity." (Ronald Bogue).

One of the luckiest things that happened in my life was that I began my translator's career with a translation of Maturana and Varela's El arbol del conocimiento (The Tree of Knowledge). My Japanese translation was published in 1987, exactly 30 years ago... And even now, their teachings occasionally give me aha! moments when I encounter some puzzling problems about life in general!