Cybernetics
& Human Knowing - Thesaurus pilot project
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Self-reference |
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Definition |
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In the context of language, a statement that refers to itself or contains its own referent. Self-referential statements may be redundant, e.g., "this is an English sentence", in the sense that the statement informs what a speaker of the English language already presumes in order to interpret it. They may also be manifestly false or contradictory, e.g., "this is a French sentence" or "this sentence contains four words".
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Principia Cybernetica (web) |
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| In the context
of language, a statement that refers to itself or contains its own
referent.
Self-referential statements may be redundant, e.g., "this is an English sentence", in the sense that the statement informs what a speaker of the English language already presumes in order to interpret it. They may also be manifestly false or contradictory, e.g., "this is a French sentence" or "this sentence contains four words". Self-referential statements may also be e.g., "this sentence is false". Paradoxical self-reference is said to exhibit a vicious cycle. In the more general sense, self-reference is involved in a description which refers to something that affects, controls or has the power to modify the form or the validity of that description. The circularity which the statement implies involves non-linguistic contexts as well. E.g., a self-fulfilling prophesy, double bind, the description of a system by an observer who is part of the system observed, the cognitive organization of biological organisms. In this general sense, self-reference establishes a circularity that may involve not only referential but also causal, interpersonal or instrumental relations and thereby constitute a unity of its own (Krippendorff)
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Encyclopedia Autopoietica |
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| See Encyclopedia
Autopoietica (1.)
[*Encyclopaedia Autopoietica 1. The document you are currently reading]
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International Encyclopedia of Systems & Cybernetics |
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| The behavior
typical of a system able to reproduce its own elements and their
specific interrelations without any need for outside intervention
(and even in spite of such interventions).
This behavior is typical of the living systems. J. BEDNARZ Jr. writes (1990, p. 58): "Their specific mode of operation (organization) is not meant to be understood in terms of referring to something beyond itself - which would be the case with the introduction of the concepts of purpose, goal or function. Rather it is closed, referring constantly to itself through the alternate (re)production of components and complex of component-producing processes. Whatever takes place within them as living systems - whatever is accomplished by their organization - does so "... as necessarily and constitutively determined in relation to themselves because their being defined as unities through self-reference (is) their manner of autonomy" (quoted from R.H. HOWE & H. von FOERSTER, 1975, p. XIII). Self-reference is also a characteristic of languages (as shown by this very work). This may lead to well known paradoxial statements and contradictions. (crf. the famous case of EPIMENIDES, the Cretan, stating that all Cretans are liars). This problem has been finally eliminated by WIITHEHEAD’s and RUSSELL’s Theory of types, and also produced in systemics two successive very important offsprings: 2nd. order cybernetics (of the observer) and autopoiesis. Some authors state that self-referential systems are "closed". It should be understood that this means merely "organizationally closed": the system necessarily maintains numerous exchanges with its environment, but these do not affect its basic identity.
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