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Autopoiesis and cellular cognition

In: The Atlas of Social Complexity

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Abstract

This chapter begins with two fundamental questions: what is life and what is cognition? For Maturana and Varela, the scholars who hold our focus in this chapter, the answer to each comes from the other: life is being aware, and being aware is to be alive. When first introduced in the 1970s, autopoiesis was dismissed as theoretical biology. Now, over 50 years later, as a minimal definition, it has become a hallmark of disruptive complexity science, and one that has led to important insights into how life, including human life, works, radically upending eons of philosophy that restricted cognition to the brain. This chapter explores how, from bacteria and simple cells to insects and humans, cognition is everywhere in every cell of life on planet earth.

Suggested Citation

  • ., 2024. "Autopoiesis and cellular cognition," Chapters, in: The Atlas of Social Complexity, chapter 6, pages 69-73, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    • Handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:19387_6
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    File URL: https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781789909524.00010
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