the.com/reflexivity
the act of pointing a thought back at itself until something cracks open.
means The property of something turning back upon itself — as when a system, theory, or observer affects the very thing it describes, or when an act applies to its own doer.
from From Latin 'reflexus,' the past participle of 'reflectere,' to bend back — 're-' (back) plus 'flectere' (to bend), the same 'flex' that lives in flexible and inflection. Light reflects by bending back off a surface; a reflexive thought does the same, folding back on its own source. The '-ity' suffix, from Latin '-itas,' simply names it as a quality or state, turning the bending-back into a thing you can hold and study.
- market loops
- Soros built billions on beliefs warping the reality they predict
- grammar
- the reason you can hurt yourself, not just others
- set theory
- Russell's paradox: the set that contains itself breaks math
- sociology
- naming a trend can create or destroy it instantly
- mirrors
- every selfie is reflexivity caught in the act
russell's paradox — set theory problem where a set contains itself as a member, discovered 1901
mirror test self-recognition — animals recognizing themselves in mirrors, tested in great apes and dolphins