Automatism’s Greek root names a double meaning pairing necessity with chance.

Evidence

If we consider its Greek etymology, the concept of automatism immediately reveals its speculative character. In fact what < α τµατισµς means is: ‘that which happens on its own’. And this can be understood in two ways: (i) what happens by itself out of necessity, its own internal necessity; (ii) what happens by itself, yet by accident or chance. Aristotle uses τ, α τµατν with this sense of chance, occurrence, when he opposes it to τ0νη. And the verb α τµατ %ειν expresses both meanings: it means to do something oneself – i.e. autonomously – and to act unreflectively, by chance, where contingency is a kind of heteronomy. If automatism has a conceptual significance it is the one deployed here, at the intersection of the essential and the accidental. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 1097

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes the key dual sense of automatism crucial to the plasticity argument.
• XREF: This dual necessity/chance structure of automatism parallels the ‘becoming essential of the accident’ theme and resonates with homeostasis-plasticity duality in her brain work. — connects to: The Greek word for autonomous reason derives from snorting and snuffling; Speculative automatism regulates the processing of the event — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 1103

Broader Connections

• Speculative automatism regulates the processing of the event #expands (0.85) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 1103