The ‘Self’ in Self-Organization

What is the role of 'self' in self-organization? From Ilya Prigogine has come the assertion of spontaneous self-organization occurring in far from equilibrium circumstances wherein the role of individual behavior or of specific circumstance can play an important role. (Prigogine & Stengers, 1984). From Stuart Kauffman has come 'order for free' or the hypothesis of self-organization wherein if there is sufficient complexity, life is a to be an expected emergent property of matter and energy. (Kauffman, 1995) From Niklas Luhmann (Luhmann, 1997) comes the claim that social systems are alive and are able to reproduce themselves out of their own products. All three theoreticians assert that 'life' could be an emergent property of natural complexity and that the 'living'-and thereby what evolution has produced-could be a product of emerging natural phenomena. Thus 'life' and human existence, have evolved without a metaphysical first cause or a telos external to nature. At once, this is a radically humanist assertion-life is its own first cause, and a radically naturalist one-there is nothing outside of the existent. In this paper we examine the significance for organization of 'self-organization'. If social systems are self-reflexive, what role does 'consciousness' play in their self-constitution? If social order is self-organizing, if human material systems create themselves, if collective action constitutes itself; what role is left for the individual 'self'? The case material used to explore this theme is the film 'the matrix'.