| Popis: |
This chapter explores the ways in which Sterne in Tristram Shandy may have anticipatedaspects of the concepts of 4E cognition. It sets Sterne into his historical-philosophic milieu, especially in the dualist traditions of Locke and Hume, and seeks to understand how Sterne’s narrative and its protagonist are living systems embodying cognitive worlds. Autopoiesis, the term used to describe systems capable of maintaining and reproducing themselves, is shown to be applicable to Sterne’s creation of a protagonist who cannot figure out who he is or how he got to be where he is. The chapter particularly emphasizes the runaway digressive loops driving Tristram’s cognitive mindset and demonstrates how the continual perturbations he experiences whenever he tries to get outside his own head disturb his self-organization. It shows that when Tristram aims to traverse the autopoietic borders he has set for himself, as he often does, he becomes progressively disturbed. |
