Body, Mind and Subjective Experience as a Flow Systems With Configurations and Anticipatory System:
A System Theory Exploration
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15135/2024.12.1.69-86Abstract
This paper proposes an interdisciplinary approach. It integrates the constructal law, configuration flow systems, and anticipatory systems for understanding the complex interplay between the human body, mind, and the environment. The constructal law, which asserts that systems evolve to maximize flow, serves as a conceptual framework, highlighting the human body as an optimized flow system. Considering our body’s configuration, especially the brain’s, as in harmony with the constructal law principles, illuminates the efficiency of information and energy flows critical for perception, cognition, and consciousness. In particular, the brain’s topographic dynamic properties and temporospatial alignment underscore these flows, with implications for higher cognitive functions. Perception and language, as flow systems, further support this perspective, demonstrating that information flows from sensory input to advanced cognitive processes. The integration of anticipatory systems with intentionality broadens our understanding of the body-mind-environment triad. Lastly, by incorporating phenomenology, it is emphasized that the physiological processes underpinning flow systems are integral to subjective experiences, thereby reinforcing the relevance of a holistic approach to health, well-being, and performance. This comprehensive perspective, connecting disparate fields, offers a multidimensional understanding of the human condition.
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