Abstract
The theory of autopoiesis1 was developed by the Chilean biologists Humberto R. Maturana and Francisco J. Varela. Starting from their research on the organization of living phenomena, they endeavoured to extend their investigation to situations lying beyond the boundaries of classical biological disciplines with regard both to methodological issues and the problemic aspects of theoresis.
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Notes
The term was used for the first time by Maturana and Varela, in H. R. Maturana and F. J. Varela, Autopoiesi e cognizione. La realizzazione del vivente (Venice: 1985 [1st ed. in Spanish, 1980]).
Maturana and Varela, cit.,p. 127.
Maturana and Varela, cit.,p. 131.
Cf. Maturana and Varela, cit.,p. 133.
Maturana and Varela, cit.,p. 59.
A. Preite, Autopoiesi: elementi per un’analisiv. Comunicazioni Scientifiche di Psicologia Generale 5 (new series), (Naples: Edizione Scientifiche Italiane, 1991), (“Sistemi ad auto-organizzazione”), p. 11.
Cf. Maturana and Varela, cit.,p. 201.
Maturana and Varela, cit.,p. 33.
A. Preite, cit.,p. 12.
G. De Michelis, “Prefazione” to Maturana and Varela, cit.,p. 14.
Cf., “Sistemi ad auto-organizzazione,” Comunicazioni Scientifiche di Psicologia Generale 5 (u. 1 ), ( Naples: Edizione Scientifiche Italiane, 1991 ).
G. Valacca, I processi modulari: un confronto fra teorie ed alcune evidenze sperimentali, Comunicazioni Scientifiche di Psicologia Generale 8 (new series), (Naples: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 1992 ), p. 72.
J. Bruner, La ricerca del significato (Turin: Bollati Boringhieri, 1992), (1st ed., 1990), p. 22 (cited in the Italian edition).
In this connection the remarks by J. J. Gibson concerning the ecological approach to perception are particularly significant. See J. J. Gibson, The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception (Boston: Houston Mifflin, 1979).
G. Valacca, cit., p. 71. For an exhaustive treatment of the systems approach based on von Bertalanffy (1968) and its applications to psychology, see M. Olivetti Belardinelli (La costruzione della realtà come problema psicologico, Turin: Boringhieri, 1986) who has provided the most complete formulation of a “systemic” psychology so far available. Cf. also E. Pessa, Intelligenza artificiale: teoria e sistemi ( Turin: Bollati-Boringhieri, 1992 ), pp. 190–203.
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Valacca, G. (1999). Autopoiesis in the Organization of Living Phenomena. In: Tymieniecka, AT. (eds) Life Scientific Philosophy, Phenomenology of Life and the Sciences of Life. Analecta Husserliana, vol 59. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2079-3_10
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