Autopoeisis

From autopoiesis to neurophenomenology: Francisco Varela’s exploration of the biophysics of being
DAVID RUDRAUF, ANTOINE LUTZ, DIEGO COSMELLI, JEAN-PHILIPPE LACHAUX, and MICHEL LE VAN QUYEN
Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives et Imagerie Cérébrale, CNRS UPR 640,Paris, France

ABSTRACT

This paper reviews in detail Francisco Varela’s work on subjectivity and consciousness in thebiological sciences. His original approach to this “hard problem” presents a subjectivity that is radically intertwined with its biological and physical roots. It must be understood within the framework of his theory of a concrete, embodied dynamics, grounded in his general theory of autonomous systems. Through concepts and paradigms such as biological autonomy, embodiment and neurophenomenology, thearticle explores the multiple levels of circular causality assumed by Varela to play a fundamental role in the emergence of human experience. The concept of biological autonomy provides the necessary and sufficient conditions for characterizing biological life and identity as an emergent and circular self-producing process. Embodiment provides a systemic and dynamical framework for understanding how acognitive self—a mind—can arise in an organism in the midst of its operational cycles of internal regulation and ongoing sensorimotor coupling. Global subjective properties can emerge at different levels from the interactions of components and can reciprocally constrain local processes through an ongoing, recursive morphodynamics. Neurophenomenology is a supplementary step in the study ofconsciousness. Through a rigorous method, it advocates the careful examination of experience with first-person methodologies. It attempts to create heuristic mutual constraints between biophysical data and data produced by accounts of subjective experience. The aim is to explicitly ground the active and disciplined insight the subject has about his/her experience in a biophysical emergent process.Finally, we discuss Varela’s essential contribution to our understanding of the generation of consciousness in the framework of what we call his “biophysics of being.” Key terms: Autonomous systems; Brain dynamics, Consciousness, Embodiment, Francisco Varela, Neurophenomenology.
INTRODUCTION

In this paper we will review Francisco Varela’s ideas about what is now often called the “hard problem”(Chalmers, 1996): the issue of the relationships between our subjective experience and our objective bio-physical embodiment. Francisco Varela liked to introduce himself by saying: “I’m a biologist who has been interested in the biological roots of cognitive phenomena” (Varela, 1990). From this standpoint, he investigated the biological basis of subjectivity and conscious experience throughout his lifeas a researcher. He did so in a very original way, illuminating this fundamental issue with deep and fascinating insights.

In the last years of his life, he proposed a scientific research program, which he called neurophenomenology (Varela, 1996), that aimed to address the problem pragmatically. This program has already produced interesting results (Lutz et al, 2002) and is currently beingconducted by colleagues from his French Brain Dynamics team, including the authors of this paper. With more than 180 published articles and 10 books (not to mention the many books he edited), Francisco’s work extends into many scientific fields: cybernetics, neurophysiology, theoretical biology, mathematics, immunology, epistemology, neuropathology (epileptology), brain imaging and brain dynamics.Corresponding Author: David Rudrauf. Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives et Imagerie Cérébrale, CNRS UPR 640, Hôpital de la Pitié-Salpêtrière, 47 Bd de l’Hôpital, 75651, Paris Cedex 13, France. Phone: (33-1) 42 16 11 72 - e-mail: david.rudrauf@chups.jussieu.fr

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RUDRAUF ET AL. Biol Res 36, 2003, 27-65

Francisco Varela was a mentor to all of the present authors: one year after his...