Autopoiesis

Abstract

The concept of autopoiesis reached the international scientific community through an article published by Varela, Maturana, and Uribe in 1974 (Varela et al., 1974), sponsored by von Foerster (Varela, 1996). Its roots lie in cybernetics and in the neurophysiology of cognition. The autopoietic approach was subsequently refined and developed over a period of five years (Maturana, 1975, 1978; Varela, 1979; Maturana and Varela, 1980a). Two readings edited by Zeleny (1980, 1981) established in quite a definite manner the essence of the autopoiesis paradigm, and also outlined the differences between Maturana and Varela regarding the possibility of its application to the social sciences.