Abstract
The aim set forth in the introduction has been accomplished. Through the description of the self-referring circular organization of the living system, and through the analysis of the domains of interactions that such an organization specifies, I have shown the emergence of a self-referring system capable of making descriptions and of generating, through orienting interactions with other, similar, systems and with itself, both a consensual linguistic domain and a domain of self-consciousness, that is: I have shown the emergence of the observer. This result alone satisfies the fundamental demand put forth at the outset: ‘The observer is a living system and any understanding of cognition as a biological phenomenon must account for the observer and his role in it’ and proves the validity of this analysis.
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© 1980 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland
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Maturana, H.R., Varela, F.J. (1980). Conclusions. In: Autopoiesis and Cognition. Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, vol 42. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8947-4_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8947-4_6
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