Since Aristotle, we have attempted to avoid self-causation, giving rise to ontic dualisms, Gödel’s incompleteness theorems, and pancomputationalism. In this article, Francisco Varela develops an alternative axiomatic paradigm whose arithmetic and algebra allow us to address self-reference. The implications and interpretation of employing such an alternative mathematical foundation are remarkable, and that is why I will examine it today.

Posted Mar 17, 2026
By Amahury J. L. Díaz

Review | A calculus for self-reference | Complexity Cat