View source for Autopoiesis

{{short description|Systems concept which entails automatic reproduction and maintenance}}
[[File:3D-SIM-4 Anaphase 3 color.jpg|thumb|3D representation of a living cell during the process of [[mitosis]], example of an autopoietic system]]

The term '''autopoiesis''' ({{ety|gre|''αὐτo-'' (auto)|self||''ποίησις'' ([[poiesis]])|creation, production}}), one of several current theories of life, refers to a [[system]] capable of producing and maintaining itself by creating its own parts.<ref>{{Cite web|title=autopoiesis|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095436328|access-date=2021-11-12|website=Oxford Reference|language=en}}</ref>
The term was introduced in the 1972 publication ''[[Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living]]''  by Chilean biologists [[Humberto Maturana]] and [[Francisco Varela]] to define the self-maintaining [[chemistry]] of living [[cells (biology)|cells]].<ref name="Maturana_Varela_1972">{{Cite book| publisher = Reidel| last1 = Maturana| first1 = Humberto R.| last2 = Varela| first2 = Francisco J.| title = Autopoiesis and cognition: the realization of the living| location = Dordrecht| date = 1972 |oclc=989554341 |pages=141 |edition=1 |series=Boston studies in the philosophy and history of science |number=42}}</ref>

The concept has since been applied to the fields of [[cognition]], [[Neuroscience|neurobiology]], [[systems theory]], [[architecture]] and [[sociology]]. [[Niklas Luhmann]] briefly introduced the concept of autopoiesis to [[organizational theory]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Achterberg |first1=Jan |last2=Vriens |first2=Dirk |title=Organizations |chapter=The Social "arche," Organizations as Social Systems: Luhmann |year=2010 |pages=118–120 |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-14316-8_4 |publisher=Springer Berlin |doi=10.1007/978-3-642-14316-8_4 |isbn=978-3-642-14315-1}}</ref>

==Overview==
In their 1972 book ''Autopoiesis and Cognition'', Chilean biologists Maturana and Varela described how they invented the word autopoiesis.<ref name="Maturana_Varela_1980">{{cite book | last1 = Maturana | first1 = Humberto | last2 = Varela | first2 = Francisco | title = Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living | edition = 2 |orig-year=1972 | date = 1980 | publisher = Springer | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=nVmcN9Ja68kC&q=Maturana++Varela+Autopoiesis+Cognition | isbn = 9789027710161 }}</ref>{{rp|89}}{{rp|16}}
{{blockquote|"It was in these circumstances ... in which he analyzed Don Quixote's dilemma of whether to follow the path of arms (''praxis'', action) or the path of letters (''poiesis'', creation, production), I understood for the first time the power of the word "poiesis" and invented the word that we needed: ''autopoiesis''. This was a word without a history, a word that could directly mean what takes place in the dynamics of the autonomy proper to living systems."}}

They explained that,<ref name="Maturana_Varela_1980"/>{{rp|78}}
{{blockquote|"An autopoietic [[machine]] is a machine organized (defined as a unity) as a network of processes of production (transformation and destruction) of components which: (i) through their interactions and transformations continuously regenerate and realize the network of processes (relations) that produced them; and (ii) constitute it (the machine) as a concrete unity in space in which they (the components) exist by specifying the topological domain of its realization as such a network."}}

They described the "space defined by an autopoietic system" as "self-contained", a space that "cannot be described by using dimensions that define another space. When we refer to our interactions with a concrete autopoietic system, however, we project this system on the space of our manipulations and make a description of this projection."<ref name="Maturana_Varela_1980"/>{{rp|89}}

==Meaning==

Autopoiesis was originally presented as a system description that was said to define and explain the nature of [[living systems]]. A canonical example of an autopoietic system is the [[biological cell]]. The [[Eukaryote|eukaryotic]] cell, for example, is made of various [[biochemical]] components such as [[nucleic acid]]s and [[protein]]s, and is organized into bounded structures such as the [[cell nucleus]], various [[organelle]]s, a [[cell membrane]] and [[cytoskeleton]]. These structures, based on an internal flow of molecules and energy, ''produce'' the components which, in turn, continue to maintain the organized bounded structure that gives rise to these components.

An autopoietic system is to be contrasted with an [[allopoietic]] system, such as a car factory, which uses raw materials (components) to generate a car (an organized structure) which is something ''other'' than itself (the factory). However, if the system is extended from the factory to include components in the factory's "environment", such as supply chains, plant / equipment, workers, dealerships, customers, contracts, competitors, cars, spare parts, and so on, then as a total viable system it could be considered to be autopoietic.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Knowledge production in organizations : a processual autopoietic view | first = Kaj U | last = Koskinen | name-list-style = vanc |date=2013 |publisher=Springer |isbn=9783319001043 |location=Heidelberg |oclc=846465493}}</ref>

Of course, cells also require raw materials (nutrients), and produce numerous products -waste products, the extracellular matrix, intracellular messaging molecules, etc.

Autopoiesis in biological systems can be viewed as a network of constraints that work to maintain themselves. This concept has been called organizational closure<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Montévil |first1=Maël |title=Biological organisation as closure of constraints |journal=Journal of Theoretical Biology |date=2015 |volume=372 |pages=179–191 |doi=10.1016/j.jtbi.2015.02.029 |pmid=25752259 |bibcode=2015JThBi.372..179M |s2cid=4654439 |url=https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2015.02.029 |access-date=6 July 2021}}</ref> or constraint closure<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kauffman |first1=Stuart A. |title=A world beyond physics: the emergence and evolution of life |date=April 1, 2019 |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> and is closely related to the study of [[Autocatalysis|autocatalytic chemical networks]] where constraints are reactions required to sustain life.

Though others have often used the term as a synonym for [[self-organization]], Maturana himself stated he would "[n]ever use the notion of self-organization&nbsp;... Operationally it is impossible. That is, if the organization of a thing changes, the thing changes".<ref>{{cite book |last=Maturana |first=Humberto | name-list-style = vanc |year=1987 |chapter=Everything is said by an observer |title=Gaia, a Way of Knowing: Political Implications of the New Biology |editor=Thompson, William Irwin |publisher=Lindisfarne Press |location=Great Barrington, MA |pages=65–82, 71 |oclc=15792540 |isbn=978-0-940262-23-2}}</ref> Moreover, an autopoietic system is autonomous and operationally closed, in the sense that there are sufficient processes within it to maintain the whole. Autopoietic systems are "structurally coupled" with their medium, embedded in a dynamic of changes that can be recalled as [[sensory-motor coupling]].<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Allen M, Friston KJ | title = From cognitivism to autopoiesis: towards a computational framework for the embodied mind | journal = Synthese | volume = 195 | issue = 6 | pages = 2459–2482 | date = 2018-06-01 | pmid = 29887647 | pmc = 5972168 | doi = 10.1007/s11229-016-1288-5 }}</ref> This continuous dynamic is considered as a rudimentary form of [[knowledge]] or [[cognition]] and can be observed throughout life-forms.

An application of the concept of autopoiesis to [[sociology]] can be found in Niklas Luhmann's [[Systems theory#Sociology and Sociocybernetics|Systems Theory]], which was subsequently adapted by [[Bob Jessop]] in his studies of the capitalist state system. [[Marjatta Maula]] adapted the concept of autopoiesis in a business context.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Maula M <!-- author-link1 = Marjatta Maula --> | date = 2006  | series = Advanced Series in Management | title = Organizations as learning systems: 'Living composition' as an enabling infrastructure. | publisher = Emerald Group Publishing }}</ref> The theory of autopoiesis has also been applied in the context of legal systems by not only Niklas Luhmann, but also Gunther Teubner.<ref>{{cite book | first = Gunther | last = Teubner | name-list-style = vanc | title = Law as an Autopoietic System | publisher = The European University Institute Press | date = 1992 }}</ref><ref>For a discussion on the evolution and development of autopoietic legal systems, see, {{Cite book| publisher = Vandeplas Publ| isbn = 978-1-60042-152-5| editor-first = Tim |editor-last=Kaye| title = Law, justice, and miscommunications: essays in applied legal philosophy| location = Lake Mary, Fla| date = 2011}}</ref> [[Patrik Schumacher]] has applied the term to refer to the 'discursive self-referential making of architecture.' <ref>{{Cite web|date=2018-01-17|title=Architect Patrik Schumacher: 'I've been depicted as a fascist'|url=http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/jan/17/architect-patrik-schumacher-depicted-fascist-zaha-hadid|access-date=2021-12-07|website=the Guardian|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Postmodernisms: Theories and Analyses of Architecture II {{!}} "The Autopoiesis of Architecture" Patrik Schumacher's Parametricism and Theory|url=https://blogs.cornell.edu/arch5302sp15/2015/05/20/the-autopoiesis-of-architecture-patrik-schumachers-parametricism-and-theory/|access-date=2021-12-07|website=blogs.cornell.edu}}</ref> Varela eventually further applied autopoesis to develop models of mind, brain, and behavior called non-[[representationalist]], [[Enactivism|enactive]], [[Embodied cognitive science|embodied cognitive neuroscience]], culminating in [[neurophenomenology]].

In the context of textual studies, [[Jerome McGann]] argues that texts are "autopoietic mechanisms operating as self-generating feedback systems that cannot be separated from those who manipulate and use them".<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = McGann J | title = The Textual Condition | publisher = Princeton University Press | date = 1986 | page = 15 }}</ref> Citing Maturana and Varela, he defines an autopoietic system as "a closed topological space that 'continuously generates and specifies its own organization through its operation as a system of production of its own components, and does this in an endless turnover of components{{'"}}, concluding that "Autopoietic systems are thus distinguished from allopoietic systems, which are Cartesian and which 'have as the product of their functioning something different from themselves{{'"}}. Coding and markup appear [[allopoietic]]", McGann argues, but are generative parts of the system they serve to maintain, and thus language and print or electronic technology are autopoietic systems.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = McGann J | chapter = Marking Texts of Many Dimensions | veditors = Schreibman S, Siemens RG, Unsworth JM | title = A Companion to Digital Humanities | publisher = John Wiley & Sons | date = 2000 }}</ref>{{rp|200–1}}

The philosopher [[Slavoj Žižek]], in his discussion of [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel|Hegel]], argues: {{blockquote|"Hegel is – to use today's terms – the ultimate thinker of autopoiesis, of the process of the emergence of necessary features out of chaotic contingency, the thinker of contingency's gradual self-organisation, of the gradual rise of order out of chaos."<ref>{{cite book | first = Slavoj | last = Žižek | name-list-style = vanc | author-link = Slavoj Žižek | title = Less Than Nothing | publisher = Verso | date = 2012 | page = 467 }}</ref>}}

==Relation to complexity==
Autopoiesis can be defined as the ratio between the complexity of a system and the complexity of its environment.<ref name="Fernández">{{cite book |chapter=Chapter 2: Information Measures of Complexity, Emergence, Self-organization, Homeostasis, and Autopoiesis | vauthors = Fernandez N, Maldonado C, Gershenson C |title=Guided self-organization: Inception |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-642-53734-9 |pages=19–51 |year=2013 |arxiv=1304.1842|bibcode=2013arXiv1304.1842F }}</ref>

{{Blockquote
|text=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. In other words, we can describe autopoietic systems as those producing more of their own complexity than the one produced by their environment.
|author=Carlos Gershenson
|title="Requisite Variety, Autopoiesis, and Self-organization"
<ref name=Gershenson>{{cite arXiv |title=Requisite Variety, Autopoiesis, and Self-organization | first = Carlos | last = Gershenson | name-list-style = vanc | author-link = Carlos Gershenson|date=26 Sep 2014 |eprint= 1409.7475| class = nlin.AO }}</ref>}}

Autopoiesis has been proposed as a potential mechanism of [[abiogenesis]], by which molecules evolved into more complex cells that could support the development of life.<ref name="frontiers">{{cite book |author1=Highfield, Roger |author2=Coveney, Peter |title=Frontiers of complexity: the search for order in a chaotic world |publisher=Faber |location=London |year=1995 |page=210 |isbn=0-571-17922-3 }}</ref>

=== Comparison with other theories of life ===

Autopoiesis is just one of several current theories of life, including the [[chemoton]]<ref name=gantibook>{{cite book| isbn= 9780198507260| title = The Principles of Life | last = Gánti | first = Tibor |publisher = Oxford University Press | date = 2003|editor1 = Eörs Száthmary | editor2 = James Griesemer}}</ref> of [[Tibor Gánti]], the [[Hypercycle (chemistry)|hypercycle]] of [[Manfred Eigen]] and [[Peter Schuster]],<ref>{{cite journal | doi= 10.1007/bf00450633|last1 = Eigen |first1 = M| last2 = Schuster |first2 =P | title = The hypercycle: a principle of natural self-organization. A: emergence of the hypercycle| journal= Naturwissenschaften|year = 1977 |volume = 64|issue = 11|pages = 541–565|pmid = 593400 |s2cid = 42131267 }}</ref>
<ref>{{cite journal | doi= 10.1007/bf00420631|last1 = Eigen |first1 = M| last2 = Schuster |first2 =P | title = The hypercycle: a principle of natural self-organization. B: the abstract hypercycle| journal= Naturwissenschaften|volume = 65|issue = 1 |pages = 7–41|s2cid = 1812273 }}</ref>
<ref>{{cite journal | doi= 10.1007/bf00420631|last1 = Eigen |first1 = M| last2 = Schuster |first2 =P | title = The hypercycle: a principle of natural self-organization. C: the realistic hypercycle| journal= Naturwissenschaften|volume = 65|issue = 7 |pages = 41–369|s2cid = 1812273 }}</ref> the [[Robert Rosen (theoretical biologist)#Complexity and complex scientific models: (M,R) systems | (''M,R'') systems]]<ref>{{cite journal | doi= 10.1007/BF02477890 |last1 = Rosen | first1 = R.|  date = 1958 |journal = Bull. Math. Biophys.| volume = 20|issue= 4|pages = 317–341|title = The representation of biological systems from the standpoint of the theory of categories}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last1 = Rosen | first1 = R.|  date = 1991| title = Life Itself: a comprehensive inquiry into the nature, origin, and fabrication of life| publisher = Columbia University Press| place=  New York}}</ref> of [[Robert Rosen (theoretical biologist)|Robert Rosen]], and the [[Autocatalytic set|autocatalytic sets]]<ref>{{cite journal | doi= 10.1016/0022-5193(69)90015-0|last1 = Kauffman|first1= S. A. |title = Metabolic stability and epigenesis in randomly constructed genetic nets| journal = J. Theor. Biol. |volume =22|issue=3|date=1969|pages=437–467|pmid = 5803332|bibcode = 1969JThBi..22..437K}}</ref> of [[Stuart Kauffman]], similar to an earlier proposal by [[Freeman Dyson]].<ref>{{cite journal | doi= 10.1007/bf01733901 | title =A model for the origin of life| last = Dyson| first = F. J.|journal = J. Mol. Evol.| volume = 18| issue = 5| pages=344–350| date =1982| pmid =7120429| bibcode =1982JMolE..18..344D| s2cid =30423925}}</ref> 
All of these (including autopoiesis) found their original inspiration in Erwin Schrödinger's book ''What is Life?''<ref>{{cite book| last1 = Schrödinger| first1 = Erwin|title = What is Life? |publisher = Cambridge University Press|date = 1944}}</ref> but at first they appear to have little in common with one another, largely because the authors did not communicate with one another, and none of them made any reference in their principal publications to any of the other theories.  Nonetheless, there are more similarities than may be obvious at first sight, for example between Gánti and Rosen.<ref>{{cite journal | doi= 10.1016/j.jtbi.2015.05.015|title = Tibor Gánti and Robert Rosen: contrasting approaches to the same problem|last1 =Cornish-Bowden | first1 =A.|journal= J. Theor. Biol. |volume = 381|pages = 6–10|date=2015|pmid = 25988381|bibcode = 2015JThBi.381....6C}}</ref> Until recently<ref>{{cite journal | doi= 10.1016/j.jtbi.2011.06.033 |title= From ''L'Homme Machine'' to metabolic closure: steps towards understanding life|last1 = Letelier|first1 = J C|last2=Cárdenas |first2 =M L|last3=Cornish-Bowden|first3 =A |journal=J. Theor. Biol. | date = 2011 | volume= 286|issue= 1 | pages= 100–113|pmid= 21763318|bibcode= 2011JThBi.286..100L}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | doi= 10.1016/j.biosystems.2014.03.002| title=Time rescaling and pattern formation in biological evolution| journal =BioSystems|volume=123 |pages= 19–26|date= 2014|last=Igamberdiev|first=A.U.| pmid=24690545| bibcode=2014BiSys.123...19I}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | doi= 10.1016/j.biosystems.2019.104063
|last2=Cárdenas |first2 =M L|last1=Cornish-Bowden|first1 =A|title =Contrasting theories of life: historical context, current theories. In search of an ideal theory|journal=BioSystems|volume =188|pages=104063|date=2020|pmid=31715221 |s2cid=207946798 |doi-access=free|bibcode=2020BiSys.18804063C }}</ref> there have been almost no attempts to compare the different theories and discuss them together.

==Relation to cognition==
An extensive discussion of the connection of autopoiesis to [[cognition]] is provided by Evan Thompson in his 2007 publication, ''Mind in Life''.<ref name="Thompson_2007_auto">{{cite book |title=Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of Mind | first = Evan | last = Thompson |isbn=978-0-674-02511-0 |publisher=Harvard University Press |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OVGna4ZEpWwC&pg=PA91 |chapter=Chapter 5: Autopoiesis: The organization of the living |pages=91–127 |year=2007}}
</ref> The basic notion of autopoiesis as involving constructive interaction with the environment is extended to include cognition. Initially, Maturana defined cognition as behavior of an organism "with relevance to the maintenance of itself".<ref name="Maturana_Varela_1980_chapter">{{cite book | last1 = Maturana | first1 = Humberto | last2 = Varela | first2 = Francisco |title = Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living | edition = 2 |orig-year=1972 | date = 1980 |chapter=The cognitive process | publisher = Springer | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=nVmcN9Ja68kC&pg=PA13 | isbn = 9789027710161}}</ref>{{rp|13}} However, computer models that are self-maintaining but non-cognitive have been devised, so some additional restrictions are needed, and the suggestion is that the maintenance process, to be cognitive, involves readjustment of the internal workings of the system in some [[Metabolism|metabolic process]]. On this basis it is claimed that autopoiesis is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for cognition.<ref name=Bitbol>{{cite journal | vauthors = Bitbol M, Luisi PL | title = Autopoiesis with or without cognition: defining life at its edge | journal = Journal of the Royal Society, Interface | volume = 1 | issue = 1 | pages = 99–107 | date = November 2004 | pmid = 16849156 | pmc = 1618936 | doi = 10.1098/rsif.2004.0012 }}
</ref> Thompson wrote that this distinction may or may not be fruitful, but what matters is that living systems involve autopoiesis and (if it is necessary to add this point) cognition as well.<ref name="Thompson_2007">{{cite book |title=Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of Mind | first = Evan | last = Thompson |isbn=978-0-674-02511-0 |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2007}}</ref>{{rp|127}} It can be noted that this definition of 'cognition' is restricted, and does not necessarily entail any awareness or [[consciousness]] by the living system. With the publication of The Embodied Mind in 1991, Varela, Thompson and Rosch applied autopoesis to make non-[[representationalist]], and [[Enactivism|enactive models of mind, brain and behavior]], which further developed [[Embodied cognitive science|embodied cognitive neuroscience]], later culminating in [[neurophenomenology]].

==Relation to consciousness==
The connection of autopoiesis to cognition, or if necessary, of living systems to cognition, is an objective assessment ascertainable by observation of a living system.

One question that arises is about the connection between cognition seen in this manner and consciousness. The separation of cognition and consciousness recognizes that the organism may be unaware of the substratum where decisions are made. What is the connection between these realms? Thompson refers to this issue as the "[[explanatory gap]]", and one aspect of it is the [[hard problem of consciousness]], how and why we have [[qualia]].<ref name="Thompson_2007_cog">{{cite book |title=Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of Mind | first = Evan | last = Thompson |isbn=978-0-674-02511-0 |publisher=Harvard University Press |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OVGna4ZEpWwC&pg=PA7 |chapter=Cognitivism |page=7 |year=2007}}</ref>

A second question is whether autopoiesis can provide a bridge between these concepts. Thompson discusses this issue from the standpoint of [[enactivism]]. An autopoietic cell actively relates to its environment. Its sensory responses trigger motor behavior governed by autopoiesis, and this behavior (it is claimed) is a simplified version of a nervous system behavior. The further claim is that real-time interactions like this require attention, and an implication of attention is awareness.<ref name="Thompson_2007_sensor">{{cite book |title=Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of Mind | first = Evan | last = Thompson |isbn=978-0-674-02511-0 |publisher=Harvard University Press |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OVGna4ZEpWwC&pg=PA243 |chapter=Sensorimotor subjectivity |pages=243|year=2007}}</ref>

==Criticism==

There are multiple criticisms of the use of the term in both its original context, as an attempt to define and explain the living, and its various expanded usages, such as applying it to self-organizing systems in general or social systems in particular.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Fleischaker G | year = 1992 | title = Autopoiesis in Systems Analysis: A Debate | journal = International Journal of General Systems | volume = 21 | issue = 2| pages = 131–271 | doi=10.1080/03081079208945065}}</ref> Critics have argued that the concept and its theory fail to define or explain living systems and that, because of the extreme language of [[self-referential]]ity it uses without any external reference, it is really an attempt to give substantiation to Maturana's radical [[constructivist epistemology|constructivist]] or [[solipsistic]] [[epistemology]],<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Swenson R |year=1992 |title=Autocatakinetics, Yes—Autopoiesis, No: Steps Toward a Unified Theory of Evolutionary Ordering |journal=International Journal of General Systems |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=207–208 |doi=10.1080/03081079208945072}}</ref> or what [[Danilo Zolo]]<ref>{{Cite journal | vauthors = Kenny V, Gardner G |year=1988 |title=The constructions of self-organizing systems |journal=The Irish Journal of Psychology |volume=9 |pages=1–24 |issue=1 |doi=10.1080/03033910.1988.10557704}}</ref><ref name="Wolfe">{{cite book |last=Wolfe |first=Cary | name-list-style = vanc |title=Critical environments: postmodern theory and the pragmatics of the "outside" |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |year=1998 |pages=62–3 |isbn=978-0-8166-3019-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tBQSBBWVg2cC&q=Zolo+Autopoiesis&pg=PT85}}</ref> has called instead a "desolate theology". An example is the assertion by Maturana and Varela that "We do not see what we do not see and what we do not see does not exist".<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Maturana H, Varela F | date = 1988 | title = The Tree of Knowledge. | series = New Science Library | publisher = Shambhala Publications | location = Boston | page = 242 }}</ref>

According to Razeto-Barry, the influence of ''Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living'' in mainstream biology has proven to be limited. Razeto-Barry believes that autopoiesis is not commonly used as the criterion for life.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Razeto-Barry|first=Pablo|date=October 2012|title=Autopoiesis 40 Years Later. A Review and A Reformulation|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232231194|journal=Origins of Life|volume=42|issue=6|pages=543–567|doi=10.1007/s11084-012-9297-y|pmid=23054553|bibcode=2012OLEB...42..543R|s2cid=8267553|via=Research Gate}}</ref>

Zoologist and philosopher [[Donna Haraway]] also criticizes the usage of the term, arguing that "nothing makes itself; nothing is really autopoietic or self-organizing",<ref>{{Cite book |last=Haraway |first=Donna Jeanne |url=http://archive.org/details/stayingwithtroub0000hara |title=Staying with the trouble : making kin in the Chthulucene |date=2016 |publisher=Durham : Duke University Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-8223-6214-2 |pages=58}}</ref> and suggests the use of ''sympoiesis'', meaning "making-with", instead.

== See also ==
{{columns-list|colwidth=35em|
* {{annotated link|Abiogenesis}}
* {{annotated link|Adaptive system}}
* {{annotated link|Allopoiesis}}
* {{annotated link|Autocatalytic set}}
* {{annotated link|Autonomous agency theory}}
* {{annotated link|Biosemiotics}}
* {{annotated link|Dissipative system}}
* {{annotated link|Chemoton}}
* {{annotated link|Dynamical system}}
* {{annotated link|Enactivism}}
* {{annotated link|Free energy principle}}
* {{annotated link|Hypercycle (chemistry)}}
* {{annotated link|Information metabolism}}
* {{annotated link|Loschmidt's paradox}}
* {{annotated link|Niklas Luhmann}}
* {{annotated link|Non-equilibrium thermodynamics}}
* {{annotated link|Poietic Generator}}
* {{annotated link|Polytely}}
* {{annotated link|Quine (computing)}}
* {{annotated link|Relational order theories}}
* {{annotated link|Robert Rosen (theoretical biologist)|Robert Rosen}}
* {{annotated link|Self-replication}}
* {{annotated link|Self-replicating machine}}
* {{annotated link|Viable system theory}}
}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book | first = Fritjof | last = Capra | author-link = Fritjof Capra | name-list-style = vanc | date = 1997 | title = The Web of Life | publisher = Random House | isbn = 978-0-385-47676-8 }} – general introduction to the ideas behind autopoiesis
* {{cite journal | last = Goosseff | first = Kyrill A. | name-list-style = vanc | date = 2010 | title = Autopoeisis and meaning: a biological approach to Bakhtin's superaddressee | journal = Journal of Organizational Change Management | volume = 23 | issue = 2 | pages = 145–151 | doi = 10.1108/09534811011031319 }}
* {{cite book | last = Dyke | first = Charles | name-list-style = vanc | date = 1988 | title = The Evolutionary Dynamics of Complex Systems: A Study in Biosocial Complexity | location = New York | publisher = Oxford University Press }}
* {{cite book | last = Livingston | first = Ira | name-list-style = vanc | date = 2006 | title = Between Science and Literature: An Introduction to Autopoetics | publisher = University of Illinois Press.  | isbn = 978-0-252-07254-3 }} &mdash;an adaptation of autopoiesis to language.
* {{cite book | last = Luhmann | first = Niklas | date = 1990 | title = Essays on Self-Reference | publisher = Columbia University Press }} &mdash;Luhmann's adaptation of autopoiesis to social systems
* {{cite journal | vauthors = Luisi PL | author-link1 = Pier Luigi Luisi | title = Autopoiesis: a review and a reappraisal | journal = Die Naturwissenschaften | volume = 90 | issue = 2 | pages = 49–59 | date = February 2003 | pmid = 12590297 | doi = 10.1007/s00114-002-0389-9 | bibcode = 2003NW.....90...49L | s2cid = 10611332 }} &mdash;biologist view of autopoiesis
*{{Cite book| publisher = Reidel| last1 = Maturana| first1 = Humberto R.| last2 = Varela| first2 = Francisco J.| title = Autopoiesis and cognition: the realization of the living| location = Dordrecht| date = 1972 |oclc=989554341 |pages=141 |series=Boston studies in the philosophy and history of science |number=42}}
*{{Cite journal| doi = 10.1016/0303-2647(74)90031-8| issn = 0303-2647| volume = 5| issue = 4| pages = 187–196| last1 = Varela| first1 = Francisco G.| last2 = Maturana| first2 = Humberto R.| last3 = Uribe| first3 = R.| title = Autopoiesis: The organization of living systems, its characterization and a model| journal = Biosystems| access-date = 2020-11-13| date = 1974-05-01| pmid = 4407425| bibcode = 1974BiSys...5..187V| url = https://dx.doi.org/10.1016%2F0303-2647%2874%2990031-8}}
* {{cite book | last1 = Maturana | first1 = Humberto | last2 = Varela | first2 = Francisco | title = Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living | edition = 2nd | date = 1980 | publisher = Springer | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=nVmcN9Ja68kC&q=Maturana++Varela+Autopoiesis+Cognition | isbn = 9789027710161 }}
* {{cite book | veditors = Cohen RS, Wartofsky MW | title = Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science | date = 30 April 1980 | volume = 42 | location = Dordecht | publisher = D. Reidel Publishing Co. | isbn = 978-90-277-1015-4 }} &mdash;the main published reference on autopoiesis
* {{cite book | last = Mingers | first = John | name-list-style = vanc | date = 1994 | title = Self-Producing Systems | publisher = Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers | isbn = 978-0-306-44797-6 }} &mdash;a book on the autopoiesis concept in many different areas
* {{cite journal | last = Robb | first = Fenton F. | name-list-style = vanc | date = 1991 | title = Accounting – A Virtual Autopoietic System? | journal = Systems Practice | volume = 4 | issue = 3 | pages = 215–235 | doi = 10.1007/BF01059566 | s2cid = 145281360 }}
* {{cite book | last = Tabbi | first = Joseph | name-list-style = vanc | volume = 2002 | title = Cognitive Fictions | publisher = University of Minnesota Press | isbn = 978-0-8166-3557-3 | year = 2002 }} &mdash; draws on systems theory and cognitive science to introduce autopoiesis to literary studies
* {{cite journal | last1 = Varela | first1 = Francisco J. | last2 = Maturana | first2 = Humberto R. | last3 = Uribe | first3 = R | name-list-style = vanc | date = 1974 | title = Autopoiesis: the organization of living systems, its characterization and a model. | journal = Biosystems | volume = 5 | issue = 4 | pages = 187–196 | doi = 10.1016/0303-2647(74)90031-8 | pmid = 4407425 | bibcode = 1974BiSys...5..187V }} &mdash;one of the original papers on the concept of autopoiesis.
*  {{cite journal | vauthors = Bourgine P, Stewart J | title = Autopoiesis and cognition | journal = Artificial Life | volume = 10 | issue = 3 | pages = 327–45 | year = 2004 | pmid = 15245631 | doi = 10.1162/1064546041255557 | s2cid = 11475918 }}
* {{cite book | vauthors = Winograd T, Flores F | author-link1 = Terry Winograd | author-link2 = Fernando Flores | date = 1990 | title = Understanding Computers and Cognition: A New Foundation for Design | url = https://archive.org/details/understandingcom00wino | url-access = registration | publisher = Ablex Pub. Corp. | isbn = 9780893910501 }} &mdash;cognitive systems perspective on autopoiesis
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Wiktionary|autopoiesis}}
* [http://www.enolagaia.com/AT.html ''The Observer Web: Autopoiesis and Enaction'': a website with more explanations]
* [http://archonic.net Several papers on autopoietic theory are available through archonic.net]
* [http://www.systems-thinking.de/selforganization.html A mindmap-collection of links and papers visualized by Ragnar Heil] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180429150351/http://www.systems-thinking.de/selforganization.html |date=2018-04-29 }}
* [https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/sres.745 Autopoiesis and knowledge in the organization by Aquiles Limone, Luis E. Bastias]

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[[Category:Cybernetics]]
[[Category:Systems theory]]
[[Category:Enactive cognition]]
[[Category:Consciousness]]
[[Category:Self-replication]]
[[Category:Organizational cybernetics]]
[[Category:Non-equilibrium thermodynamics]]
[[Category:Biological hypotheses]]