具体描述
This book employs recursivity and contingency as two principle concepts to investigate into the relation between nature and technology, machine and organism, system and freedom. It reconstructs a trajectory of thought from an Organic condition of thinking elaborated by Kant, passing by the philosophy of nature (Schelling and Hegel), to the 20th century Organicism (Bertalanffy, Needham, Whitehead, Wiener among others) and Organology (Bergson, Canguilhem, Simodnon, Stiegler), and questions the new condition of philosophizing in the time of algorithmic contingency, ecological and algorithmic catastrophes, which Heidegger calls the end of philosophy.
The book centres on the following speculative question: if in the philosophical tradition, the concept of contingency is always related to the laws of nature, then in what way can we understand contingency in related to technical systems? The book situates the concept of recursivity as a break from the Cartesian mechanism and the drive of system construction; it elaborates on the necessity of contingency in such epistemological rupture where nature ends and system emerges. In this development, we see how German idealism is precursor to cybernetics, and the Anthropocene and Noosphere (Teilhard de Chardin) point toward the realization of a gigantic cybernetic system, which lead us back to the question of freedom. It questions the concept of absolute contingency (Meillassoux) and proposes a cosmotechnical pluralism. Engaging with modern and contemporary European philosophy as well as Chinese thought through the mediation of Needham, this book refers to cybernetics, mathematics, artificial intelligence and inhumanism.
作者简介
Yuk Hui studied Computer Engineering and Philosophy at the University of Hong Kong and Goldsmiths College in London, with a focus on philosophy of technology. Currently he teaches at the institute of philosophy and art (IPK) of the Leuphana University Lüneburg; he is also a visiting professor at the China Academy of Art. Previous to that, he was a research associate at the Institute for Culture and Aesthetics of Media (ICAM), postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Research and Innovation of the Centre Pompidou in Paris and a visiting scientist at the Deutsche Telekom Laboratories in Berlin. He has published on philosophy of technology and media in periodicals such as Research in Phenomenology, Metaphilosophy, Parrhesia, Angelaki, Theory Culture and Society, Cahiers Simondon, Deleuze Studies, Intellectica, Krisis, Implications Philosophiques, Jahrbuch Technikphilosophie, Techné, Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft, Appareil, New Formations,Parallax, etc. He is editor (with Andreas Broeckmann) of 30 Years after Les Immatériaux: Art, Science and Theory (2015), and author of On the Existence of Digital Objects (prefaced by Bernard Stiegler, University of Minnesota Press, March 2016), The Question Concerning Technology in China. An Essay in Cosmotechnics (Urbanomic, December 2016), and Recursivity and Contingency (R&L International, forthcoming Spring 2019)
目录信息
Introduction. A Psychedelic Becoming
Chapter 1. Nature and Recursivity
Chapter 2. Logic and Contingency
Chapter 3. Organized Inorganic
Chapter 4. Organizing Inorganic
Chapter 5. The Inhuman that Remains
Bibliography
Index
· · · · · · (收起)
读后感
用户评价
老实说，这本书的阅读体验是相当“非线性”的，它挑战了我对传统学术写作的固有期待。它的行文逻辑更像是音乐的复调结构，多个看似不相关的声部——历史考证、概念辨析、案例分析——同时进行，却在关键的转折点上达到了和谐的共振。我特别欣赏作者在处理那些极具争议性的理论节点时所展现出的那种近乎冷酷的客观性，他没有急于给出一个简单的“是”或“否”的裁决，而是耐心细致地铺陈了所有支持与反对的脉络，让读者自行去权衡。这种写作姿态，与其说是布道，不如说更像是一种严谨的法庭辩论，每一方论据都被充分呈现。书中的引文选择也十分独到，常常能从被遗忘的角落中挖掘出与当代议题产生惊人共鸣的古代思想片段，这种跨越时空的对话感，极大地丰富了文本的层次。我建议读者在阅读时准备好充足的时间和心力，因为这绝对不是一本可以“跳着读”的书，每一个脚注都可能蕴含着通往更深层次理解的线索。
这是一部需要被反复品味的著作，它的密度之高令人咋舌。如果你期待的是那种清晰、直白的知识传递，那么你可能会在开篇感到些许的挫败。作者的笔法非常精炼，句子结构往往错综复杂，充满了从句和修饰语，这要求读者必须全神贯注地进行“慢阅读”。我尤其喜欢作者在关键论点处使用的类比，它们往往出人意料，却又在逻辑上完美契合，比如他将某种复杂的系统运行模式比喻为某种古老的航海技术——这个类比瞬间点亮了原本晦涩难懂的概念。此外，全书的架构安排得十分巧妙，它避免了陷入纯粹的理论抽象，而是时常将读者拉回到具体的、具有历史厚度的场景中进行检验，这使得理论的生命力得以延续。这部作品无疑是为那些享受智力搏击的读者量身定制的，它不仅提供了答案，更重要的是，它重塑了我们提出问题的框架。
这本书给我带来的震撼，主要源于它对“确定性”这个概念的彻底解构。作者似乎着迷于探究那些处于模糊地带、无法被简单归类的现象。叙述方式上，它采取了一种极具个人色彩的、近乎沉思的散文体，但在其浪漫的外表下，隐藏着极其坚实的逻辑骨架。例如，书中对某个核心概念的阐述，前后横跨了近百页，从不同的侧面、不同的范畴反复打磨，如同雕刻家对待一块顽固的璞玉，每一次刻画都深化了其内在的形态。令我印象深刻的是，作者似乎并不在乎读者是否能“完全”跟上他的思路，他更关注的是引导读者进入那种持续的、不满足于表面答案的探寻状态。这种对过程的强调，使得阅读本身变成了一种动态的参与，而非被动的接受。读完后，我发现自己看待日常决策的方式都发生了一些微妙的、但却是根本性的转变，这才是真正的好书所能达到的效果。
这部作品以其深邃的洞察力和极其精妙的结构设计，在我心中留下了难以磨灭的印象。作者似乎拥有一种罕见的、能够穿透事物表象直抵其内在逻辑的能力，使得每一次阅读都像是在进行一场精心编排的哲学探险。尤其让我赞叹的是叙事节奏的把控，它并非线性推进，而是采取了一种螺旋上升的模式，每一次看似重复的主题回溯，实则都伴随着理解深度的显著跃升。读到中间部分时，我常常需要停下来，不仅仅是为了消化那些信息量巨大的论证，更是为了沉浸于作者所构建的那个复杂而又自洽的思维宇宙中。文本的语言风格典雅而富有张力，如同精密机械的齿轮咬合，每一个词汇的选择都似乎经过了反复的推敲和打磨，旨在最大化其携带的信息密度。对于习惯于快餐式阅读的现代读者来说，这无疑是一次严峻的考验，但对于那些渴望在智识上进行深度耕耘的人来说，它提供的回报是无与伦比的丰厚。那种在迷宫中摸索，最终豁然开朗的体验，是其他许多书籍难以企及的。
坦率地说，这本书的气质是极其严肃和内敛的，它散发出一种历经时间沉淀的厚重感。它不像许多当代作品那样急于迎合读者，反而似乎有一种内在的坚持，要求读者必须先达到一定的认知水平才能真正领会其精髓。作者在组织材料时，展现出了百科全书式的广博学识，但与那些堆砌知识点的作品不同，这里的每一条知识线索都被巧妙地编织进一个宏大的哲学挂毯之中，互为支撑，缺一不可。我发现自己常常需要查阅大量的背景资料，以更好地理解作者引用的那些看似冷僻的典故或理论先驱。这种阅读的“阻力”，恰恰是其价值所在——它强迫你走出去，去建立更广阔的知识网络。读毕之后，我感到自己仿佛完成了一次深入地质层面的考察，不仅看到了地表景观，更理解了那些深埋地下的构造力量是如何塑造成今日之貌的。
