Autopoiesis and Knowledge in Self-Sustaining Organizational Systems
4th International Multi-Conference on Society, Cybernetics and Informatics: IMSCI 2010, Orlando, Florida, June 29-July 2, 2010
6 Pages Posted: 10 Feb 2011
Date Written: June 1, 2010
Abstract
Knowledge and the communication of knowledge are critical for self-sustaining organizations comprised of people and the tools and machines that extend peoples’ physical and cognitive capacities. Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela proposed the concept of autopoiesis (“self” “production”) as a definition of life in the 1970s. Nicklas Luhmann extended this concept to establish a theory of social systems, where intangible human social systems were formed by recursive networks of communications. We show here that Luhmann fundamentally misunderstood Maturana and Varela’s autopoiesis by thinking that the self-observation necessary for self-maintenance formed a paradoxically vicious circle. Luhmann tried to resolve this apparent paradox by placing the communication networks on an imaginary plane orthogonal to the networked people. However, Karl Popper’s evolutionary epistemology and the theory of hierarchically complex systems turns what Luhmann thought was a vicious circle into a virtuous spiral of organizational learning and knowledge. There is no closed circle that needs to be explained via Luhmann’s extraordinarily paradoxical linguistic contortions.
Keywords: Autopoiesis, Organization Theory, Nicklas Luhman, Social Systems Theory, Self Observation, Karl Popper, Evolutionary Epistemology
JEL Classification: B20, D21, D71, D89, L20
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
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