Autopoiesis
The term autopoiesis (from Greek αὐτo- (auto-) 'self', and ποίησις (poiesis) 'creation, production') refers to a system capable of producing and maintaining itself by creating its own parts.[1]
The term was introduced in the 1972 publication
The concept has since been applied to the fields of cognition, neurobiology, systems theory, architecture and sociology. Niklas Luhmann briefly introduced the concept of autopoiesis to organizational theory.[3]
Overview
In their 1972 book Autopoiesis and Cognition, Chilean biologists Maturana and Varela described how they invented the word autopoiesis.[4]: 89 : 16
"It was in these circumstances ... in which he analyzed Don Quixote's dilemma of whether to follow the path of arms (praxis, action) or the path of letters (poiesis, creation, production), I understood for the first time the power of the word "poiesis" and invented the word that we needed: autopoiesis. This was a word without a history, a word that could directly mean what takes place in the dynamics of the autonomy proper to living systems."
They explained that,[4]: 78
"An autopoietic machine is a machine organized (defined as a unity) as a network of processes of production (transformation and destruction) of components which: (i) through their interactions and transformations continuously regenerate and realize the network of processes (relations) that produced them; and (ii) constitute it (the machine) as a concrete unity in space in which they (the components) exist by specifying the topological domain of its realization as such a network."
They described the "space defined by an autopoietic system" as "self-contained", a space that "cannot be described by using dimensions that define another space. When we refer to our interactions with a concrete autopoietic system, however, we project this system on the space of our manipulations and make a description of this projection."[4]: 89
Meaning
Autopoiesis was originally presented as a system description that was said to define and explain the nature of
An autopoietic system is to be contrasted with an
Of course, cells also require raw materials (nutrients), and produce numerous products -waste products, the extracellular matrix, intracellular messaging molecules, etc.
Autopoiesis in biological systems can be viewed as a network of constraints that work to maintain themselves. This concept has been called organizational closure[6] or constraint closure[7] and is closely related to the study of autocatalytic chemical networks where constraints are reactions required to sustain life.
Though others have often used the term as a synonym for self-organization, Maturana himself stated he would "[n]ever use the notion of self-organization ... Operationally it is impossible. That is, if the organization of a thing changes, the thing changes".[8] Moreover, an autopoietic system is autonomous and operationally closed, in the sense that there are sufficient processes within it to maintain the whole. Autopoietic systems are "structurally coupled" with their medium, embedded in a dynamic of changes that can be recalled as sensory-motor coupling.[9] This continuous dynamic is considered as a rudimentary form of knowledge or cognition and can be observed throughout life-forms.
An application of the concept of autopoiesis to
.In the context of textual studies,
The philosopher Slavoj Žižek, in his discussion of Hegel, argues:
"Hegel is – to use today's terms – the ultimate thinker of autopoiesis, of the process of the emergence of necessary features out of chaotic contingency, the thinker of contingency's gradual self-organisation, of the gradual rise of order out of chaos."[17]
Relation to complexity
Autopoiesis can be defined as the ratio between the complexity of a system and the complexity of its environment.[18]
This generalized view of autopoiesis considers systems as self-producing not in terms of their physical components, but in terms of its organization, which can be measured in terms of information and complexity. In other words, we can describe autopoietic systems as those producing more of their own complexity than the one produced by their environment.
— Carlos Gershenson, "Requisite Variety, Autopoiesis, and Self-organization" [19]
Autopoiesis has been proposed as a potential mechanism of abiogenesis, by which molecules evolved into more complex cells that could support the development of life.[20]
Comparison with other theories of life
Autopoiesis is just one of several current theories of life, including the chemoton[21] of Tibor Gánti, the hypercycle of Manfred Eigen and Peter Schuster,[22]
[23]
Relation to cognition
An extensive discussion of the connection of autopoiesis to
Relation to consciousness
The connection of autopoiesis to cognition, or if necessary, of living systems to cognition, is an objective assessment ascertainable by observation of a living system.
One question that arises is about the connection between cognition seen in this manner and consciousness. The separation of cognition and consciousness recognizes that the organism may be unaware of the substratum where decisions are made. What is the connection between these realms? Thompson refers to this issue as the "explanatory gap", and one aspect of it is the hard problem of consciousness, how and why we have qualia.[38]
A second question is whether autopoiesis can provide a bridge between these concepts. Thompson discusses this issue from the standpoint of enactivism. An autopoietic cell actively relates to its environment. Its sensory responses trigger motor behavior governed by autopoiesis, and this behavior (it is claimed) is a simplified version of a nervous system behavior. The further claim is that real-time interactions like this require attention, and an implication of attention is awareness.[39]
Criticism
There are multiple criticisms of the use of the term in both its original context, as an attempt to define and explain the living, and its various expanded usages, such as applying it to self-organizing systems in general or social systems in particular.
According to Razeto-Barry, the influence of Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living in mainstream biology has proven to be limited. Razeto-Barry believes that autopoiesis is not commonly used as the criterion for life.[45]
Zoologist and philosopher Donna Haraway also criticizes the usage of the term, arguing that "nothing makes itself; nothing is really autopoietic or self-organizing",[46] and suggests the use of sympoiesis, meaning "making-with", instead.
See also
- Abiogenesis
- Adaptive system – set of interacting or interdependent entities forming an integrated whole that are able to respond to environmental changes, analogous to physiological homeostasis or evolutionary adaptation in biology
- Allopoiesis
- Autocatalytic set
- Autonomous agency theory – viable system theory
- Biosemiotics – Biology interpreted as a sign system
- Dissipative system – Thermodynamically open system which is not in equilibrium
- Chemoton
- Dynamical system – Mathematical model of the time dependence of a point in space
- Enactivism – Philosophical concept
- Free energy principle – Hypothesis in neuroscience
- Hypercycle (chemistry)
- Information metabolism – Psychological theory of interaction between biological organisms and their environment
- Loschmidt's paradox – Conflict between known physical principles (time symmetry and entropy)
- Niklas Luhmann – German sociologist (1927–1998)
- Neuropheneomenology -Varela et al’s ’s application of autopoesis to embodied/enactive non representationalist cognitive neuroscience
- Non-equilibrium thermodynamics – Branch of thermodynamics
- Poietic Generator – Social network game played on a two-dimensional matrix
- Polytely – Problem-solving technique
- Practopoiesis– set of interacting or interdependent entities forming an integrated whole that are able to respond to environmental changes, analogous to physiological homeostasis or evolutionary adaptation in biology
- Quine (computing) – Self-replicating program
- Relational order theories– Sociological theory
- Robert Rosen– American theoretical biologist
- Self-replication – Type of behavior of a dynamical system
- Self-replicating machine – Device able to make copies of itself
- Viable system theory – concerns cybernetic processes in relation to the development/evolution of dynamical systems
References
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- ^ Kauffman, Stuart A. (April 1, 2019). A world beyond physics: the emergence and evolution of life. Oxford University Press.
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- PMID 29887647.
- ^ Maula M (2006). Organizations as learning systems: 'Living composition' as an enabling infrastructure. Advanced Series in Management. Emerald Group Publishing.
- ^ Teubner G (1992). Law as an Autopoietic System. The European University Institute Press.
- ISBN 978-1-60042-152-5.
- ^ "Architect Patrik Schumacher: 'I've been depicted as a fascist'". the Guardian. 2018-01-17. Retrieved 2021-12-07.
- ^ "Postmodernisms: Theories and Analyses of Architecture II | "The Autopoiesis of Architecture" Patrik Schumacher's Parametricism and Theory". blogs.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2021-12-07.
- ^ McGann J (1986). The Textual Condition. Princeton University Press. p. 15.
- ^ McGann J (2000). "Marking Texts of Many Dimensions". In Schreibman S, Siemens RG, Unsworth JM (eds.). A Companion to Digital Humanities. John Wiley & Sons.
- ^ Žižek S (2012). Less Than Nothing. Verso. p. 467.
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- ^ Rosen, R. (1991). Life Itself: a comprehensive inquiry into the nature, origin, and fabrication of life. New York: Columbia University Press.
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- ^ Schrödinger, Erwin (1944). What is Life?. Cambridge University Press.
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- ^ Maturana H, Varela F (1988). The Tree of Knowledge. New Science Library. Boston: Shambhala Publications. p. 242.
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Further reading
- ISBN 978-0-385-47676-8. – general introduction to the ideas behind autopoiesis
- Goosseff KA (2010). "Autopoeisis and meaning: a biological approach to Bakhtin's superaddressee". Journal of Organizational Change Management. 23 (2): 145–151. .
- Dyke C (1988). The Evolutionary Dynamics of Complex Systems: A Study in Biosocial Complexity. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Livingston I (2006). Between Science and Literature: An Introduction to Autopoetics. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-07254-3. —an adaptation of autopoiesis to language.
- Luhmann, Niklas (1990). Essays on Self-Reference. Columbia University Press. —Luhmann's adaptation of autopoiesis to social systems
- S2CID 10611332. —biologist view of autopoiesis
- Maturana, Humberto R.; Varela, Francisco J. (1972). Autopoiesis and cognition: the realization of the living. Boston studies in the philosophy and history of science. Dordrecht: Reidel. p. 141. OCLC 989554341.
- Varela, Francisco G.; Maturana, Humberto R.; Uribe, R. (1974-05-01). "Autopoiesis: The organization of living systems, its characterization and a model". Biosystems. 5 (4): 187–196. PMID 4407425. Retrieved 2020-11-13.
- Maturana, Humberto; Varela, Francisco (1980). Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living (2nd ed.). Springer. ISBN 9789027710161.
- Cohen RS, Wartofsky MW, eds. (30 April 1980). Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science. Vol. 42. Dordecht: D. Reidel Publishing Co. ISBN 978-90-277-1015-4. —the main published reference on autopoiesis
- Mingers J (1994). Self-Producing Systems. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. ISBN 978-0-306-44797-6. —a book on the autopoiesis concept in many different areas
- Robb FF (1991). "Accounting – A Virtual Autopoietic System?". Systems Practice. 4 (3): 215–235. S2CID 145281360.
- Tabbi J (2002). Cognitive Fictions. Vol. 2002. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-0-8166-3557-3. — draws on systems theory and cognitive science to introduce autopoiesis to literary studies
- Varela FJ, Maturana HR, Uribe R (1974). "Autopoiesis: the organization of living systems, its characterization and a model". Biosystems. 5 (4): 187–196. PMID 4407425. —one of the original papers on the concept of autopoiesis.
- Bourgine P, Stewart J (2004). "Autopoiesis and cognition". Artificial Life. 10 (3): 327–45. S2CID 11475918.
- ISBN 9780893910501. —cognitive systems perspective on autopoiesis
External links
- The Observer Web: Autopoiesis and Enaction: a website with more explanations
- Several papers on autopoietic theory are available through archonic.net
- A mindmap-collection of links and papers visualized by Ragnar Heil Archived 2018-04-29 at the Wayback Machine
- Autopoiesis and knowledge in the organization by Aquiles Limone, Luis E. Bastias