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Francisco Varela Quotes
1946–2001 Chile
Francisco Javier Varela García (September 7, 1946 – May 28, 2001) was a Chilean biologist and philosopher who, together with his teacher Humberto Maturana, is best known for introducing the concept of autopoiesis to biology.
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The relations that define a system as a unity, and determine the dynamics of interaction and transformations which it may undergo as such a unity constitute the organization of the machine.
Autopoiesis and cognition: The realization of the living (1980)
As Buddhist teachers often point out, knowledge, in the sense of prajña, is not knowledge about anything. There is no abstract knower of an experience that is separate from the experience itself.
The Embodied Mind (1991)
The cybernetics phase of cognitive science produced an amazing array of concrete results, in addition to its long-term (often underground) influence
The Embodied Mind (1991)
By autopoietic organization, Maturana and Varela meant the] processes interlaced in the specific form of a network of productions of components which realizing the network that produced them constitutes it as a unity.
Autopoiesis and cognition: The realization of the living (1980)
I’m a biologist who has been interested in the biological roots of cognitive phenomena
Varela (1990)
I'm interested in establishing empirical correlations between a long-standing interest in Buddhist practice and scientific work.
The Emergent Self (1995)
Buddhism is a practice, not a belief, and every Buddhist is, in some way, lay clergy — involved in the way a scientist is involved in his or her work, or in the way a writer's mind is involved in writing, present in the background, all the time.
The Emergent Self (1995)
If everybody would agree that their current reality is a reality, and that what we essentially share is our capacity for constructing a reality, then perhaps we could all agree on a meta-agreement for computing a reality that would mean survival and dignity for everyone on the planet, rather than each group being sold on a particular way of doing things.
Varela (1975)
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