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Principles of Biological Autonomy, a new annotated edition

Author Francisco J. Varela
Foreword by Amy Cohen Varela
Edited by Ezequiel A. Di Paolo, Evan Thompson
Ebook
The MIT Press
On sale May 13, 2025 | 408 Pages | 9780262381826
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A new, updated edition of the 1979 classic from one of the foremost authors in cognitive science and theoretical biology, with the original text as well as more than 200 citations to current scientific developments.

Francisco Varela’s Principles of Biological Autonomy was a groundbreaking text when it was first published in 1979, putting forth a novel theory of how living systems produce and maintain themselves. This new edition, edited and annotated by cognitive scientists Ezequiel Di Paolo and Evan Thompson—revised and complemented with introductory essays for each part of the book—contains a wealth of ideas relevant to current projects in theoretical biology, cognitive science, systems theory, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of biology. Over 220 margin annotations supplement the reading of the text, linking to subsequent research and broader contemporary debates.

This foundational book introduces the key concept of autonomy derived as an elaboration of the idea of autopoiesis (the self-production and self-distinction) of living organisms. Varela covers topics in systems theory, neuroscience, theories of perception, and immune networks and offers a participatory epistemology that goes on to be further developed in later enactive literature. These ideas are compelling not only for historical reasons but also because they still illuminate current efforts in developing the enactive approach toward wider and more challenging goals (including language, human cognition, ethics, and environmentalism).
Foreword
Introduction to the New Edition. A Message from the Margins
Preface. Information and Control Revisited
Part I. Autonomy of the Living and Organizational Closure
1. Autonomy and Biological Thinking
2. Autopoiesis and the Organization of Living Systems
3. A Tessellation Example of Autopoiesis
4. Embodiments of Autopoiesis
5. The Individual in Development and Evolution
6. On the Consequences of Autopoiesis
7. The Idea of Organizational Closure
Part II. Descriptions, Distinctions, and Circularities
8. Operational Explanations and the Dispensability of Information
9. Symbolic Explanations
10. The Framework of Complementarities
11. Calculating Distinctions
12. Closure and Dynamics of Form
13. Eigenbehavior
Part III. Cognitive Processes
14. The Immune Network: Self and Nonsense in the Molecular Domain
15. The Nervous System as a Closed Network
16. Epistemology Naturalized
Appendices
Appendix A Algorithm for a Tesselation Example of Autopoiesis
Appendix B Some Remarks on Reflexive Domains and Logic
Bibliography
Francisco J. Varela (1946–2001) was Director of the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique; Professor of Cognitive Science and Epistemology, CREA, at the Ecole Polytechnique; and Cofounder of the Mind and Life Institute.

Ezequiel A. Di Paolo is Ikerbasque Research Professor at the Basque Foundation for Science and Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics at the University of Sussex.

Evan Thompson is Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia, where he is also Associate Member of the Department of Asian Studies and the Department of Psychology. He is a coauthor of The Embodied Mind and The Blind Spot (both MIT Press), an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and a past President of the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association.

Amy Cohen Varela is Chairperson of the Mind & Life Europe Board and involved with Mind and Life since its inception. She is also a clinical psychologist specialized in psychodynamic therapy and philosophy. Amy studied comparative literature at Brown and Columbia Universities before moving to Paris in the early ’80s, where she received her degree in clinical psychology at the University of Paris 7, with a specialty in psychodynamic theory and practice, and in parallel, completed psychoanalytic training.
Francisco J. Varela View titles by Francisco J. Varela

About

A new, updated edition of the 1979 classic from one of the foremost authors in cognitive science and theoretical biology, with the original text as well as more than 200 citations to current scientific developments.

Francisco Varela’s Principles of Biological Autonomy was a groundbreaking text when it was first published in 1979, putting forth a novel theory of how living systems produce and maintain themselves. This new edition, edited and annotated by cognitive scientists Ezequiel Di Paolo and Evan Thompson—revised and complemented with introductory essays for each part of the book—contains a wealth of ideas relevant to current projects in theoretical biology, cognitive science, systems theory, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of biology. Over 220 margin annotations supplement the reading of the text, linking to subsequent research and broader contemporary debates.

This foundational book introduces the key concept of autonomy derived as an elaboration of the idea of autopoiesis (the self-production and self-distinction) of living organisms. Varela covers topics in systems theory, neuroscience, theories of perception, and immune networks and offers a participatory epistemology that goes on to be further developed in later enactive literature. These ideas are compelling not only for historical reasons but also because they still illuminate current efforts in developing the enactive approach toward wider and more challenging goals (including language, human cognition, ethics, and environmentalism).

Table of Contents

Foreword
Introduction to the New Edition. A Message from the Margins
Preface. Information and Control Revisited
Part I. Autonomy of the Living and Organizational Closure
1. Autonomy and Biological Thinking
2. Autopoiesis and the Organization of Living Systems
3. A Tessellation Example of Autopoiesis
4. Embodiments of Autopoiesis
5. The Individual in Development and Evolution
6. On the Consequences of Autopoiesis
7. The Idea of Organizational Closure
Part II. Descriptions, Distinctions, and Circularities
8. Operational Explanations and the Dispensability of Information
9. Symbolic Explanations
10. The Framework of Complementarities
11. Calculating Distinctions
12. Closure and Dynamics of Form
13. Eigenbehavior
Part III. Cognitive Processes
14. The Immune Network: Self and Nonsense in the Molecular Domain
15. The Nervous System as a Closed Network
16. Epistemology Naturalized
Appendices
Appendix A Algorithm for a Tesselation Example of Autopoiesis
Appendix B Some Remarks on Reflexive Domains and Logic
Bibliography

Author

Francisco J. Varela (1946–2001) was Director of the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique; Professor of Cognitive Science and Epistemology, CREA, at the Ecole Polytechnique; and Cofounder of the Mind and Life Institute.

Ezequiel A. Di Paolo is Ikerbasque Research Professor at the Basque Foundation for Science and Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics at the University of Sussex.

Evan Thompson is Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia, where he is also Associate Member of the Department of Asian Studies and the Department of Psychology. He is a coauthor of The Embodied Mind and The Blind Spot (both MIT Press), an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and a past President of the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association.

Amy Cohen Varela is Chairperson of the Mind & Life Europe Board and involved with Mind and Life since its inception. She is also a clinical psychologist specialized in psychodynamic therapy and philosophy. Amy studied comparative literature at Brown and Columbia Universities before moving to Paris in the early ’80s, where she received her degree in clinical psychology at the University of Paris 7, with a specialty in psychodynamic theory and practice, and in parallel, completed psychoanalytic training.
Francisco J. Varela View titles by Francisco J. Varela

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