homeostasis
Compiled with AI assistance and selectively reviewed. Please consult the cited passages; the books remain the authoritative source. About this companion
Editorial synthesis · provisional
Definition
Homeostasis is the active regulation through which a living body keeps internal conditions within viable bounds despite disturbance. It is maintained work rather than static equilibrium: bodily persistence requires ongoing exchange and adjustment. The books connect it with biological individuation, persistence, value and feeling, without making regulation identical to conscious feeling or to every form of stability.
Explanation
AB describes a moving corridor of viable conditions and distinguishes bodily governance from a flame's ongoing flow. Its notes distinguish homeostasis from anticipatory allostasis and separate sensing from feeling. RB1 presents regulated temperature, pH and other variables as internal non-equilibrium, interpreting this through Simondon's metastability; its conatus discussion places homeostasis among organisms' activities of persistence.
RB2 connects homeostasis with Edelman's value-dependent learning and with the bodily grounding of affect, but distinguishes biological value from affective and ethical value. PB's deep-sea literary voice evokes survival under scarce oxygen, not a technical definition. Its formal appendix calls precarious self-production a homeostatic coalgebra held far from equilibrium, while marking the sense-making valuation as an unverified sketch. RB3 explicitly denies that homeostasis is static equilibrium and describes persistence through exchange, repair, turnover and regulated instability.
Scope and attribution
PB owns a qualified formal application and literary illustration, not an empirical definition. Homeostatic feelings remains separate.
AB — The Actual Book
Governed bodily flow maintains viability; notes distinguish allostasis and sensing from feeling.
Occurrence locators: 56, 76, 77, 120; Notes: 240, 241, 245.
PB — The Possible Book
Literary survival imagery is distinct from the formal homeostatic coalgebra; its related valuation is explicitly an unverified sketch.
Occurrence locators: 152; Literary application: 68.
RB1 — The Real Book, Volume I: The Possible Is Real
Homeostasis exemplifies regulated non-equilibrium and biological conatus.
Occurrence locators: 30, 205, 214, 277, 286.
RB2 — The Real Book, Volume II: Becoming Is Being
Homeostasis enters value-dependent learning and the bodily basis of affect, without collapsing biological, affective and ethical value or identifying Damasio's interpretation with the author's.
Occurrence locators: 2, 22, 23, 31, 38, 39, 40, 44, 76, 134.
RB3 — The Real Book, Volume III: Murmurations
Living persistence involves exchange, repair and regulated instability, not static equilibrium; the native longevity note distinguishes unusual aging from literal immortality.
Occurrence locators: 74, 79, 166, 167; Notes: 167.
Background used in the editorial explanation
Named theories and mechanisms are distinguished from neighboring background, homonyms and the author’s own synthesis. Reproduced AI passages retain their separate voice.