autopoiesis
thumb|3D representation of a living cell during the process of mitosis, example of an autopoietic system
Article
11 sectionsContents
- Overview
- Meaning
- Relation to complexity
- Comparison with other theories of life
- Relation to cognition
- Relation to consciousness
- Criticism
- See also
- References
- Further reading
- External links
thumb|3D representation of a living cell during the process of mitosis, example of an autopoietic system
The term autopoiesis (), one of several current theories of life, refers to a system capable of producing and maintaining itself by creating its own parts. Chilean biologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela, in the 1972 publication Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living, introduced the term to define the self-maintaining chemistry of living cells.