Dialogues and Criticism

1. Relationship with the Philosophy of Mind

The text opposes the Idealismo (which says that the world is a construction of the mind) and at the same time Panpsiquismo (que diz que tudo tem mente). A OCE defende um Materialismo Emergentista: the mind is real, but it is a late product. Before the mind, there is matter capable of complex but unconscious operations.

"Reason, when it emerged as an instance of symbolic organisation, interpreted this prior not as an operative condition, but as an enigma to be solved."

2. Dialogue with Art

This text has affinities with the theory of contemporary art, especially with the automatismo surrealista ou a action painting by Pollock. The idea that the gesture precedes intention is common in art: the artist does it, and only then interprets what he did. The universe is first automatic artist.

Three Proposed Ruptures

• Contra o Autor: The universe has no author. It is an anonymous work.
• Against Representation: Natural forms do not "represent" anything (a cloud is not a map); they just are.
• Contra a Finalidade: The eye was not made "to" see; the eye was formed, and why It worked (see), it persisted. Function follows form, not the other way around.