Theory of the Organism-Environment System
The Theory of the Organism-Environment System is a proposition by Timo Järvilehto[1][2], positing that "in any functional sense organism and environment are inseparable and form only one unitary system" (1998:329)[1]. As single organisms are elements of the larger organism-environment system, behavior is not the interaction of two systems but a "reorganization" or "change of the relations" of these elements within the system (1998:330)[1]. Organisms cannot and do not exists separate from their environment, and what is typically thought of as an organism's body-internal processes, critically cognition, is bound to the system as a whole. Järvilehto does not consider mental activity to be localized to or bounded by the nervous system, which is only the location of the neurons. In the organism-environment system, there is no "external" or "environmental" stimuli, merely elements of the system interacting in a useful way. It is also not possible to divide mental activity into separate functions (e.g. perception, memory, consciousness, emotion, social behavior, etc.). All mental activity is part of the same process of "reorganization" of the larger system (1998:330-333).
This page is relates to the cognitive ecology of language.
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Järvilehto, T. (1998). The theory of the organism-environment system: I. Description of the theory. Integrative Physiological and Behavioral Science, 33(4), 321–334. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02688700
- ↑ Järvilehto, T. (2009). The theory of the organism-environment system as a basis of experimental work in psychology. Ecological Psychology, 21(2), 112–120. https://doi.org/10.1080/10407410902877066
