Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science) [Hardcover]

H.R. Maturana (Author), F.J. Varela (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 1980 | ISBN-10: 9027710155 | ISBN-13: 978-9027710154 | Edition: 1

What makes a living system a living system? What kind of biological phenomenon is the phenomenon of cognition? These two questions have been frequently considered, but, in this volume, the authors consider them as concrete biological questions. Their analysis is bold and provocative, for the authors have constructed a systematic theoretical biology which attempts to define living systems not as objects of observation and description, nor even as interacting systems, but as self-contained unities whose only reference is to themselves. The consequence of their investigations and of their living systems as self-making, self-referring autonomous unities, is that they discovered that the two questions have a common answer: living systems are cognitive systems, and living as a process is a process of cognition. The result of their investigations is a completely new perspective of biological (human) phenomena. During the investigations, it was found that a complete linguistic description pertaining to the ‘organization of the living’ was lacking and, in fact, was hampering the reporting of results. Hence, the authors have coined the word ‘autopoiesis’ to replace the expression ‘circular organization’. Autopoiesis conveys, by itself, the central feature of the organization of the living, which is autonomy.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 180 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (April 30, 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9027710155
• ISBN-13: 978-9027710154
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,044,430 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars new paradigm, May 31, 2010

By 

Roger John Harnden (Wales, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 42) (Paperback)

This small volume is a seminal work. It is made up of four papers, each of which can be read in its own right: Humberto Maturana wrote the Introduction and the essay 'Biology of Cognition' (1970); while together with Francisco Varela he co-authored 'Autopoeisis: the organization of the living' (1973). Stafford Beer contributes an enthusiastic and clear Preface for the joint paper, in which he described its historical importance.

The significance of this book has not lessened since the time of its first publication in 1980. In all this time, there have been no substantive refutations as to the authors' claims, that autopoiesis represents a ground shift in our understanding of the molecular dynamics which realise living. Many readers might be reading this review from the context of other disciplines than biology: such as cognitive science, A.I. artificial life, social theory, philosophy, law, family therapy, in all of which this work has had a major impact over the past forty years. The reader from neurophysiology and biology is likely to have a somewhat different experience, in that the authors describe a radically new approach to living, one which has important statements about the biological bases for the evolutionary emergence of so-called higher human functions such as cognition, mind, and language.

The original investigations described here provided a key component for the development of reflexive approaches whether in the arts, philosophy or psychotherapy.

The long term implications of this new paradigm are still to be decided, but this foundational work is enormously relevant to the contemporary debate concerning sustainability and the emergence (or not) of a truly global community.

This is not an easy book, nor should it be. But it is fascinating and enormously rewarding for the serious reader in whatever the domain. It explains the theoretical grounding for recent studies concerning the origins of humanness in the biology of love, by Gerda Verden Zoller and Maturana.

Both Maturana and Varela in somewhat different ways, were to go on to indicate reasons to seriously question the notion of genetic determinism and any biological bases for inequality in human affairs, demonstrating how and why humanness itself in its more benevolent aspects can be shown to emerges from the biological autonomy of organisms, which when braided in their recurrent coordinations of actions to other autonomous individuals through the mechanisms they describe, realise an ethics of personal responsibility and love.