title: From autopoiesis to semantic closure.
abstract: This article addresses the question of providing an adequate mathematical formulation for the concepts of autopoiesis and closure under efficient cause. What is required is metaphorically equivalent to reducing the act of writing to a set of mathematical equations, habitually effected by a human mathematician, within the ongoing function of the system itself. This, in turn, raises the question of the relationship between autopoiesis and semantics. The hypothesis suggested is that whereas semantics clearly requires autopoiesis, it may be also be the case that autopoiesis itself can only be materially realized in a system that is characterized by a semantic dimension.
authors.affiliation: Department of Theoretical Biology, Gulbenkian Institute of Science, Oeiras, Portugal. John.Stewart@utc.fr
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stewart
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008433:Mathematics; D008954:Models, Biological; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012660:Semantics