How to Cite
Abstract
The paper shows how far goes the convergence between the concept of autopoiesis, developed
by the biologist and cognitive scientist Francisco Varela, and the notion of Naturzweck
introduced by Immanuel Kant in Kritik der Urteilskraft (1790). Despite the notorious Kantian
advance on the description of the living, his commitment to Newtonian mechanism prevents one
from adopting the domain of life as a qualitative leap in relation to pure matter, a problem that
the ontology underlying the concept of autopoiesis overcomes.
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