Autopoiesis and Structural Sciences Node
Structural sciences
One of the branches (or even roots) of complexity sciences has been called “structural sciences”. It is referred to the search of transdisciplinary languages, concepts, principles, theories and research programs that allow to understand items that can be shared by different domains of reality and different types of systems, which are usually studied in isolation by traditional disciplines. In addition to classic structural sciences (such as the general system theory, tektology, cybernetics, information theory, game theory) have raised new structural theories, as the self-organized system theory, chaos theory, network theory, complexity theory, artificial life, among others.
Autopoiesis
Autopoiesis is a structural concept coined by the Chilean biologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela in 1973. They claimed that all living beings are autopoietic systems, and thus autopoiesis is proposed as a structural definition of life. Although authors defined autopoiesis in different texts with some differences, we follow this definition:
An autopoietic system is a network of processes which produces all the components whose internal production is necessary to maintain the network operating as a unit.
(Razeto-Barry 2012, p. 549)
Given that this concept is defined without specifying the nature of components of the system, autopoiesis is a structural concept that has been applied to different disciplines, in particular, social sciences.
A specific definition of life is the one of “molecular autopoiesis” (specifying the physical domain of the components):
A system in a context of spatial dissipation of components is autopoietic if and only if:
1. It is a network of physical and chemical processes.
2. This network chemically produces a subset of the components which are parts of the network.
3. This subset of components, by means of relations among its members and with the components of its surroundings, generates the conditions necessary to maintain the components of the network in physical proximity, collectively forming a spatially discrete individual unit over time.
(Modified from Razeto-Barry 2012, p. 557. See also Razeto-Barry and Ramos-Jiliberto 2013, p. 33, see the following Figure)
Members
Dr. Pablo Razeto Barry
Dr. Davide Vecchi
Dr. Rodrigo Ramos Jiliberto
Dr.(c) Tomás Veloz
Dr.(c) Isaac Hernández
Lic. Ramiro Frick
Dra. Nancy Sanhueza
External collaborators
Dr. Leonardo Bich
Dr.(c) Ximena González Grandón
Publications
RAZETO-BARRY, P. & RAMOS-JILIBERTO, R. (eds.). 2013. Autopoiesis. Un Concepto Vivo. Editorial Nueva Civilización. Santiago, Chile.
RAZETO-BARRY, P. & RAMOS-JILIBERTO, R. 2013. Cuarenta años de autopoiesis y la tradición sistémica en Chile. pp. 10-14. Autopoiesis. Un Concepto Vivo. Editorial Nueva Civilización. Santiago, Chile.
RAZETO-BARRY, P. & RAMOS-JILIBERTO, R. 2013. ¿Qué es autopoiesis? pp. 27-57.Autopoiesis. Un Concepto Vivo. Editorial Nueva Civilización. Santiago, Chile.
VELOZ, T. 2013. Teoría de organizaciones químicas: un lenguaje formal para la autopoiesis y el medio ambiente. pp. 229-245. En RAZETO-BARRY, P. & RAMOS-JILIBERTO, R. (eds.). Autopoiesis. Un Concepto Vivo. Editorial Nueva Civilización. Santiago, Chile.
SANHUEZA, N. 2013. Autopoiesis y medio ambiente: entendiendo el concepto de sustentabilidad a través de la noción autoecopoiesis. pp. 211-227. En RAZETO-BARRY, P. & RAMOS-JILIBERTO, R. (eds.). Autopoiesis. Un Concepto Vivo. Editorial Nueva Civilización. Santiago, Chile.
FRICK, R. 2013. Autopoiesis y evolución: encuentros y desencuentros entre el programa autopoiético y el programa darwiniano. pp. 129-168. En RAZETO-BARRY, P. & RAMOS-JILIBERTO, R. (eds.). Autopoiesis. Un Concepto Vivo. Editorial Nueva Civilización. Santiago, Chile.
RAZETO-BARRY, P. 2012. Autopoiesis 40 years later. A review and a reformulation. Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres 42(6): 543-567.
International Academic Events
Symposium: Autopoiesis. An Alive Concept. See: