Autopoiesis and Cognition The Realization of the Living by H.R. Maturana, F.J. Varela , Springer

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Springer Autopoiesis and Cognition The Realization of the Living by H.R. Maturana, F.J. Varela

This is a bold, brilliant, provocative and puzzling work. It demands a radical shift in standpoint, an almost paradoxical posture in which living systems are described in terms of what lies outside the domain of descriptions. Professor Humberto Maturana, with his colleague Francisco Varela, have undertaken the construction of a systematic theoretical biology which attempts to define living systems not as they are objects of observation and description, nor even as in teracting systems, but as self-contained unities whose only reference is to them selves. Thus, the standpoint of description of such unities from the 'outside', i. e. , by an observer, already seems to violate the fundamental requirement which Maturana and Varela posit for the characterization of such system- namely, that they are autonomous, self-referring and self-constructing closed systems - in short, autopoietic systems in their terms. Yet, on the basis of such a conceptual method, and such a theory of living systems, Maturana goes on to define cognition as a biological phenomenon; as, in effect, the very nature of all living systems. And on this basis, to generate the very domains of interac tion among such systems which constitute language, description and thinking._x000D_ Table of contents : - _x000D_ Editorial Preface_x000D_ General Table Of Contents _x000D_ Foreword _x000D_ Introduction (by Professor Maturana) _x000D_ Biology Of Cognition _x000D_ Dedication _x000D_ Table of Contents_x000D_ I. Introduction _x000D_ II. The Problem _x000D_ III. Cognitive Function in General _x000D_ A. The Observer _x000D_ B. The Living System _x000D_ C. Evolution _x000D_ D. The Cognitive Process _x000D_ IV. Cognitive Function in Particular _x000D_ A. Nerve Cells _x000D_ B. Architecture _x000D_ C. Function _x000D_ D. Representation _x000D_ E. Description _x000D_ F. Thinking _x000D_ G. Natural Language _x000D_ H. Memory and Learning _x000D_ I. The Observer _x000D_ V. Problems in the Neurophysiology of Cognition _x000D_ VI. Conclusions _x000D_ VII. Post Scriptum _x000D_ Autopoiesis: The Organization Of The Living _x000D_ Preface (by Sir Stafford Beer) _x000D_ Introduction _x000D_ I. On Machines, living and Otherwise _x000D_ 1. Machines _x000D_ 2. Living Machines _x000D_ II. Dispensability of Teleonomy _x000D_ 1. Purposelessness _x000D_ 2. Individuality _x000D_ III. Embodiments of Autopoiesis _x000D_ 1. Descriptive and Causal Notions _x000D_ 2. Molecular Embodiments _x000D_ 3. Origin _x000D_ IV. Diversity of Autopoiesis _x000D_ 1. Subordination to the Condition of Unity _x000D_ 2. Plasticity of Ontogeny _x000D_ 3. Reproduction, a Complication of the Unity _x000D_ 4. Evolution, a Historical Network _x000D_ 5. Second and Third Order Autopoietic Systems _x000D_ V. Presence of Autopoiesis _x000D_ 1. Biological Implications _x000D_ 2. Epistemological Implications _x000D_ 3. Cognitive Implications _x000D_ Appendix: The Nervous System _x000D_ Glossary _x000D_ Bibliography _x000D_ Index Of Names_x000D_