What makes a living system a living system? What kind of biological phenomenon is the phenomenon of cognition? These two questions have been frequently considered, but, in this volume, the authors consider them as concrete biological questions. Their analysis is bold and provocative, for the authors have constructed a systematic theoretical biology which attempts to define living systems not as objects of observation and description, nor even as interacting systems, but as self-contained unities whose only reference is to themselves. The (...) consequence of their investigations and of their living systems as self-making, self-referring autonomous unities, is that they discovered that the two questions have a common answer: living systems are cognitive systems, and living as a process is a process of cognition. The result of their investigations is a completely new perspective of biological (human) phenomena. During the investigations, it was found that a complete linguistic description pertaining to the ‘organization of the living’ was lacking and, in fact, was hampering the reporting of results. Hence, the authors have coined the word ‘autopoiesis’ to replace the expression ‘circular organization’. Autopoiesis conveys, by itself, the central feature of the organization of the living, which is autonomy. (shrink)

"We are trying to apply the concepts of an outdated world view--the mechanistic world view of Cartesian-Newtonian science--to a reality that can no longer be understood in terms of these concepts.

(1991). The origins and diffusion of patrism in Saharasia, c.4000 BCE: Evidence for a worldwide, climate‐linked geographical pattern in human behavior. World Futures: Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 247-271.

This paper (presented during the Physis: Inhabiting the Earth conference, Florence, Italy, October 28?31, 1986) examines the evolution of social structure from the new perspective of findings indicating that how the relations between the female and male halves of humanity are structured has profoundly affected human social organization as well as the direction of cultural evolution. Drawing from archeological data and the study of ancient myths, it briefly traces the development of western culture through Paleolithic, Neolithic, and historic times. It (...) also presents data indicating that there is a viable alternative to the present, potentially lethal, emphasis on technologies of domination and destruction. (shrink)

Three eminent scientists analyze the scientific, social, and political roots of biological determinism.