The Organization of the Living: A Theory of the Living Organization
International Journal of Human-Computer StudiesPublished 1 August 1999
Humberto R. Maturana
Citations348
SJR quartileQ1
SJR score1.39
SNIP2.34
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TL;DR
The fundamental feature that characterizes living systems is autonomy, and any account of their organization as systems that can exist as individual unities must show what autonomy is as a phenomenon proper to them, and how it arises in their operation as such unities.
Abstract
The fundamental feature that characterizes living systems is autonomy, and any account of their organization as systems that can exist as individual unities must show what autonomy is as a phenomenon proper to them, and how it arises in their operation as such unities. Accordingly the following is proposed.
Keywords
Decision Sciences
BiosystemsAutopoiesis: The organization of living systems, its characterization and a model
1,858 Citations1974Francisco Varela, Humberto R. Maturana +1 more
Notwithstanding their diversity, all living systems must share a common organization which the authors implicitly recognize calling them “living,” but there is no formulation of this organization, mainly because the great developments of molecular, genetic and evolutionary notions in contemporary biology have led to the overemphasis of isolated components.