Humberto Maturana

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Humberto Maturana
Maturana in 2015
Born(1928-09-14)September 14, 1928
Santiago, Chile
DiedMay 6, 2021(2021-05-06) (aged 92)
Santiago, Chile
NationalityChilean
Alma materUniversity of Chile; University College London; Harvard University
AwardsNational Prize for Natural Sciences
Scientific career
FieldsBiology, philosophy
InstitutionsUniversity of Chile; Instituto de Formación Matríztica
ThesisThe fine structure of the optic nerve and tectum of anurans; an electron microscope study (1959)
Doctoral advisorGeorge B. Chapman
Doctoral studentsRafael E. Núñez
Francisco Varela

Humberto Maturana Romesín (September 14, 1928 – May 6, 2021) was a

philosopher. Many consider him a member of a group of second-order cybernetics theoreticians such as Heinz von Foerster, Gordon Pask, Herbert Brün and Ernst von Glasersfeld
, but in fact he was a biologist, scientist.

Maturana, along with Francisco Varela and Ricardo B. Uribe, was known for creating the term "autopoiesis" about the self-generating, self-maintaining structure in living systems, and concepts such as structural determinism and structural coupling.[1] His work was influential in many fields, mainly the field of systems thinking and cybernetics. Overall, his work is concerned with the biology of cognition.[2] Maturana (2002) insisted that autopoiesis exists only in the molecular domain, and he did not agree with the extension into sociology and other fields:

The molecular domain is the only domain of entities that through their interactions give rise to an open ended diversity of entities (with different dynamic architectures) of the same kind in a dynamic that can give rise to an open ended diversity of recursive processes that in their turn give rise to the composition of an open ended diversity of singular dynamic entities.[3]

Life and career

Maturana was born in

PhD in biology from Harvard University in 1958.[4]

He worked in neuroscience at the University of Chile, in the Biología del Conocer (Biology of Knowing) research center. Maturana's work has been developed and integrated into the work on ontological coaching developed by Fernando Flores and Julio Olalla.

In 1994, he received Chile's National Prize for Natural Sciences.[5]

Maturana established his own reflection and research center, the Instituto de Formación Matriztica. In 2020, he was awarded an honorary fellowship by the Cybernetics Society.

Maturana died in Santiago on May 6, 2021, at age 92, due to pneumonia.[6][7]

Work

Maturana, 2012
A drawing in zero time

Maturana's research interests concern concepts like cognition, autopoiesis, languaging, zero time cybernetics and structurally determined systems. Maturana's work extends to

Jakob von Uexküll
.

His inspiration for his work in cognition came while he was a medical student and became seriously ill with tuberculosis. Confined in a sanatorium with very little to read, he spent time reflecting on his condition and the nature of life. What he came to realize was "that what was peculiar to living systems was that they were discrete autonomous entities such that all the processes that they lived, they lived in reference to themselves ... whether a dog bites me or doesn't bite me, it is doing something that has to do with itself." This paradigm of autonomy formed the basis of his studies and work.[2]

Maturana and his student

neurobiology. Maturana and Varela wrote "Living systems are cognitive systems, and living as a process is a process of cognition. This statement is valid for all organisms, with or without a nervous system."[8]

Reflections on life and association with Francisco Varela

In an article in Constructivist Foundations. Maturana described the origins of the concept of autopoiesis and his collaboration with Varela.[9]

In popular culture

Maturana influenced — and appears in coded form as a character in the novel Replay by German author Benjamin Stein.[citation needed]

Publications

The initial paper which stands as a prelude to all that followed:

  • Biology of Cognition. Humberto R. Maturana. Biological Computer Laboratory Research Report BCL 9.0. Urbana IL: University of Illinois, 1970. As Reprinted in: Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living. Dordecht: D. Reidel Publishing Co., 1980, pp. 5–58.

Books

See also

References

  1. ISBN 90-277-1016-3
    (paper)
  2. ^ a b Magnus Ramage, Karen Shipp (2012) Systems Thinkers
  3. ^ Maturana, H.R. (2002). "Autopoiesis, structural coupling and cognition: A history of these and other notions in the biology of cognition". Cybernetics and Human Knowing. 9: 5–34.
  4. ^ See more biographical details in History: The Biology of Cognition Laboratory of the Universidad de Chile (1960–2006). Juan-Carlos Letelier, Gonzalo Marín & Jorge Mpodozis. Published online at http://biologyofcognition.wordpress.com/about/
  5. ^ "Bernabé Santelices recibe el Premio Nacional de Ciencias Naturales" [Bernabé Santelices Receives the National Prize for Natural Sciences]. El Mercurio (in Spanish). Santiago. 31 August 2012. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
  6. ^ "A los 92 años muere el destacado biólogo y escritor chileno Humberto Maturana". 24Horas.cl (in Spanish). 2021-05-06. Retrieved 2021-05-06.
  7. ^ "Familia de Humberto Maturana revela causas de su fallecimiento: "Es un momento de gratitud y luto"". BioBioChile - La Red de Prensa Más Grande de Chile (in Spanish). 2021-05-06. Retrieved 2021-05-06.
  8. ^ Maturana, Humberto R. & Varela, Francisco J. (1980): Autopoiesis and Cognition. The Realization of the Living. Dordrecht: Reidel, p. 13.
  9. ^ "Reflections on My Collaboration with Francisco Varela". Constructivist Foundations. 7 (3): 155–163. 2012.

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Humberto Maturana.
Wikiquote has quotations related to Humberto Maturana.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Humberto_Maturana&oldid=1217289690"