From Being to Doing. The Origins of the Biology of Cognition. - Softcover

Humberto R. Maturana; Bernhard Poerksen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 3896704486 ISBN 13: 9783896704481

Publisher: Carl Auer International, 2004

Synopsis

At the beginning of the last century, physicists revolutionised the scientific view of the world. Today biologists are radically transforming our understanding of the processes of life and cognition. Probing the mysteries of the mind, they have been able to prove that, in the act of knowing, the observer and the observed, subject and object, are inextricably enmeshed. The world we live in is not independent from us; we literally bring it forth ourselves. One of the protagonists of this new kind of thinking is the internationally renowned neurobiologist and systems theorist Humberto R. Maturana who was interviewed for several weeks by Bernhard Poerksen, journalist, and communication scientist. In this book, they explore the limits of our cognitive powers, discuss the truth in perception, the biology of love, and give, all in all, an introduction to systemic thinking that is down to earth, imaginative, and rich in anecdote.

About this title

About the Author:

Humberto R. Maturana, born 1928, first studied medicine in Chile, and then anatomy in England, was awarded a Ph.D. in biology at Harvard University, and went on to do postgraduate work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 1960, he returned to the University of Santiago. There he taught – also during the years of the dictatorship – until his retirement. He worked as a professor of biology, founded and directed the Laboratory for Experimental Epistemology and the Biology of Cognition. Humberto R. Maturana, who has become famous as a leading exponent of modern systems thinking, is the author of several books, including the bestseller written together with his disciple Francisco J. Varela, “The Tree of Knowledge”. Bernhard Poerksen is junior professor of journalism and communication science at the University of Hamburg/Germany. He was awarded a Ph.D. for a thesis on the language of neo-Nazis.

About this edition

• Publisher: Carl Auer International
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 3896704486
• ISBN 13: 9783896704481
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 208