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Presence of Autopoiesis

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Part of the book series: Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science ((BSPS,volume 42))

Abstract

Autopoiesis in the physical space is necessary and sufficient to characterize a system as a living system. Reproduction and evolution as they occur in the known living systems, and all the phenomena derived from them, arise as secondary processes subordinated to their existence and operation as autopoietic unities. Hence, the biological phenomenology is the phenomenology of autopoietic systems in the physical space, and a phenomenon is a biological phenomenon only to the extent that it depends in one way or another on the autopoiesis of one or more physical autopoietic unities.

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© 1980 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland

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Maturana, H.R., Varela, F.J. (1980). Presence of Autopoiesis. In: Autopoiesis and Cognition. Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, vol 42. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8947-4_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8947-4_13

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-277-1016-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-8947-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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