title: Towards an autopoietic redefinition of life.
abstract: In this paper we develop the autopoietic approach to the definition of the living developed by Maturana and Varela in the Seventies. Starting from very simple observations concerning the phenomenology of life, we propose a reformulation of the autopoietic original definition of life which integrates some of the contemporary criticism to it. Our definitional proposal, aiming to stimulate the further development of the autopoietic approach, expresses what remains implicit in the definition of the living originally given by Maturana and Varela: life, as self-production, is a process of cognitive coupling with the environment.
authors.affiliation: University of Hertfordshire, Adaptive Systems Research Group, STRI & School of Computer Science, E 122, College Lane, Hatfield, Herts AL10 9AB, United Kingdom. luisa.damiano@gmail.com
authors.forename: Luisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Damiano
authors.forename: Pier Luigi
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Luisi
mesh_terms: D019369:Life; D008962:Models, Theoretical