Sites sur l'Autopoïèse
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2000-08-07
What this site is about
This site deals with matters of biology and of the human spirit. In biological science some people get excited about the whole organism, connecting patterns and behaviour while others are more attracted to the molecular causal mechanisms by which life might be controlled. This difference is nicely explained in Fritjof Capra's book (Capra, Fritjof The Web of Life : A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems , New York: Anchor Books, 1996).
My passion is exploring the science of wholeness and self-organising systems (rather than genetic manipulation and control) and its role in nurturing the human spirit.
Autopoiesis is a concept created by Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela to explain how living systems operate.
Therefore it applies to all aspects our daily living, particularly how we associate with one another and what brings us satisfaction.
My mates and I give lectures and workshops, write songs and stories - generally have fun - learning this stuff. This site is devoted to the beauty, the satisfaction and the hope for humankind which we find in these new scientific explanations.
The theory of autopoiesis is also a theory of cognition. It is a new understanding of life at all levels - organisms, social systems, ecosystems - based on a perception of reality which can enrich both our science and our quality of life.
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2000-08-07
After studying and applying a variety of other theories, I have come to believe that Maturana and Varela's work provides the broadest, the most consistent, and the most useful available theoretical base from which to explore these issues.
As a demonstration of that belief, I have established this Web site as the largest publicly-accessible collection of resources for exploring Maturana and Varela's work.
Introduction, Tutorial,
Study Plan,
WWW Journal,
the Autopoiesis and Enaction ~rwhit/ATBookShop.html" Bookshop
Encyclopaedia Autopoietica.
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2000-08-09
ABOUT LIFE'S NATURAL SOLUTIONS
Life's Natural Solutions is an educational consultancy that offers individuals in businesses, organisations and institutions a different paradigm that supports human growth and potential.
We have reached a turning point in our evolution, an opportunity to create social systems and cultures that support and encourage our growth and potential as human beings. We cannot do this however in our present paradigm. We require a shift, a paradigm shift which supports a new cycle of human evolution.
It is a shift from our linear, causal and objective worldview to a biological and systemic understanding of ourselves, nature and the cosmos. Unless we make this shift, perceptual and behavioral, we will continue to maintain the status quo - wars; violence; the gap between rich and poor resulting from economic rationalism; the abuse of women, children and drugs; divorce; suicides resulting from low self esteem; racism; the economic and environmental exploitation of third world countries and the exploitation of our natural resources - the environment. We have created all of these social and environmental problems, all of us are responsible. And it is obvious that we are maintaining something that does not work.
What is not working is our perceptions and behaviors - how we perceive and relate with each other and our environment, what constitutes our present or western paradigm. Our crisis is perceptual and behavioral. We are not human beings in our present western paradigm. We are objects to be exploited in the pursuit of acquiring material wealth. Our focus is material growth - the pursuit of material objects, not human growth. We care more about objects - the getting and acquiring of, than we do about each other.
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