What is autopoiesis theory?

Autopoietic Theory Maturana and Varela’s ‘autopoiesis theory’ described the characteristic processes that were fundamental to self-organized, living organisms. Derived from the Greek words auto, meaning ‘self’ and poiesis, meaning ‘creation’, autopoietic systems are ones that are comprised of self-creating processes.

Are humans Autopoietic?

Following Varela and Maturana, she contends that every human order is an “autopoietic, autonomously functioning, languaging, living system” (Wynter 2015, 32).

What is an Allopoietic system?

Allopoiesis is the process whereby a system produces something other than the system itself. One example of this is an assembly line, where the final product (such as a car) is distinct from the machines doing the producing.

What is the etymology of the word 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.

What is a cybernetic system?

The term cybernetic system has a clear quantitative definition. It is a system that dynamically matches acquired information to selected actions relative to a computational issue that defines the essential purpose of the system or machine. This notion requires that information and control be further quantified.

Who invented autopoiesis?

The theory of autopoiesis was developed by the two Chilean cognitive biologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela in the sixties and early seventies.

What is structural coupling?

Structural Coupling: A situation in which a structurally coupled relationship exists between the agent and the environment is required for a system to count as being embodied. From: Handbook of Cognitive Science, 2008.

What is cybernetic thinking?

Wiener defined cybernetics as “the science of control and communications in the animal and machine.” This definition relates cybernetics closely with the theory of automatic control and also with physiology, particularly the physiology of the nervous system.

What is an example of cybernetic?

Examples of cybernetic systems are various kinds of automatic control devices in engineering (for example, an automatic pilot or a controller that maintains a constant temperature in a room), electronic computers, the human brain, biological populations, and human society.

What is a systems theory approach?

Systems theory seeks to explain and develop hypotheses around characteristics that arise within complex systems that seemingly could not arise in any single system within the whole. This is referred to as emergent behavior.

What is an example of structural coupling?

But what is structural coupling in a more material sense? A horse and a rider structurally couple while the rider is riding the horse. The two entities, clearly, are not bound together to form a Centaur; decoupling is always possible.

What is Social coupling?

The relationship between psychic systems and social systems can be defined as “structural coupling.”Such a coupling is realized in two steps. First, a single communication and a single thought happen simultaneously, and this allows the indiuidual to think what he or she is understanding in communication.

What is autopoiesis?

Autopoiesis can be defined as the ratio between the complexity of a system and the complexity of its environment. 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.

Why is autopoiesis necessary for autonomy?

Autopoiesis is part of the set of necessary conditions for Autonomy because it is a way of ensuring causal closure, though in theory that may be achieved in a more general way (see the description of Rosen’s (M,R) systems ). Living systems are both (simultaneously) separate and integrated with the rest of the world.

What is the ISBN for autopoeisis?

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”.

What is an autopoietic system?

We arrive at this: an autopoietic system is self-sustaining, homeostatic and autonomous, with a continous outer boundary, despite having a continuous flow of mass and energy through it.