On the Recursive Logic of Biological Determination: Indexical synchronicity, symbolic representation, and iconic transformation
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: How does a living organism maintain a coherent system of possibilities through which its environment becomes determinable, while remaining capable of transforming that system? This paper develops an interpretation of biological determination as a biosemiotic process grounded in the relational categories of synchronicity, recursion, and return. Synchronicity establishes the organism's integrated present Now, within which symbolic representation provides general forms and validity conditions governing recognition and response. Recursion involves two complementary movements: the continuation of established symbolic relationships and iconic mediation, through which new relational possibilities may become determinable and subsequently stabilized. Their reciprocity provides a formal interpretation of biological learning as the transformation of established possibilities of determination. The analysis extends to higher-order relational structures, including temporal patterns of behavior. An appendix generalizes this logic through the reciprocal relationship between explicate and implicate orders, understood as a formal articulation of the generativity of organismic identity, rather than its ontological foundation.
Author: Rogers, Timothy M.
Language: English
Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7225424481