With the help of illustrations and examples from biology, linguistics and social and cultural phenomena, this book shows that the process of learning is not a means of knowing an absolute world of facts, but is rather an active process which itself creates the world of human experiences. To convey this, the authors examine cognition in all its facets, exploring topics such as the nature of scientific exploration, the organization of living things, evolution, language and the emergence of self-awareness.

This is a bold, brilliant, provocative and puzzling work. It demands a radical shift in standpoint, an almost paradoxical posture in which living systems are described in terms of what lies outside the domain of descriptions. Professor Humberto Maturana, with his colleague Francisco Varela, have undertaken the construction of a systematic theoretical biology which attempts to define living systems not as they are objects of observation and description, nor even as in- teracting systems, but as self-contained unities whose only reference is to them- selves. Thus, the standpoint of description...

This is a bold, brilliant, provocative and puzzling work. It demands a radical shift in standpoint, an almost paradoxical posture in which living systems are described in terms of what lies outside the domain of descriptions. Professor Humberto Maturana, with his colleague Francisco Varela, have undertaken the construction of a systematic theoretical biology which attempts to define living systems not as they are objects of observation and description, nor even as in- teracting systems, but as self-contained unities whose only reference is to them- selves. Thus, the standpoint of description...

Die in diesem Band versammelten Texte repräsentieren die Entwicklung der biologischen Theorie des Erknnens von Humberto R. Maturana. Sein besonderes Interesse gilt dabei der Anatomie und Physiologie des Nervensystems, der Physiologie der Wahrnehmung und dem Phänomen der Erkenntnis. Der von ihm entwickelte Begriff der Autopoiesis und seine Betrachtungsweise der Operationen des Nervensystems als eines geschlossenen Systems sind für die Systemtheorie und den Konstruktivismus von entscheidender Bedeutung.

Der Mensch ist fahig zu erkennen. Diese Fahigkeit setzt allerdings seine bio logische Integritat (Ganzheit, Unversehrtheit) voraus. Der Mensch kann ausserdem erkennen, dass er erkennt. Erkennen (Kognition) als basale psychologische und somit biologische Funktion steuert seine Handhabung der Welt, und Wissen gibt seinen Handlungen Sicherheit. Objektives Wissen scheint moglich, und die Welt erscheint dadurch planvoll und vorhersagbar. Und doch ist Wissen als Erfahrung etwas Personliches und Privates, das nicht ubertragen werden kann. Das, was man fur ubertragbar halt, namlich objektives Wissen,...