Autopoiesis (Maturana and Varela)
Autopoiesis (Maturana y Varela)
- Date
- 1972 · confidence high
- Place
- University of Chile, Santiago, Chile
- Credited to
- Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
A concept defining living beings as networks that produce the components that constitute and sustain them. It was formulated in Chile in De máquinas y seres vivos (1972).
Its application to society and cognition is controversial; the definition of life by autopoiesis is not universally accepted.
What it led to
- Biology of cognition and enactivism
- Luhmann's theory of social systems
- Cognitive science and artificial life