The nervous system balances self-maintenance against self-generated change.

Evidence

In the central nervous system, as we have seen, the formative contradiction—formation/explosion—proceeds from a more original contradiction: that between the maintenance of the system, or ”homeostasis,” and the ability to change the system, or ”self-generation.” The nervous system, like any system, is self-regulated, self-organized, which means that it expends considerable energy in assuring its maintenance. Basically, in order to preserve itself from destruction, it must keep itself in the same state. Thus it continuously generates and specifies its own organization. — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 246

In the central nervous system, as we have seen, the formative contradiction—formation/explosion—proceeds from a more original contradiction: that between the maintenance of the system, or ‘‘homeostasis,’’ and the ability to change the system, or ‘‘self-generation.’’ The nervous system, like any system, is self-regulated, self-organized, which means that it expends considerable energy in assuring its maintenance. — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 246

Categorization

• DEFINE: Damasio’s homeostasis vs. self-generation distinguishes the two poles the nervous system works between — the biological basis of the plasticity claim.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 246