Editing Francisco Varela

{{short description|Chilean scientist and philosopher}}
{{other people}}
{{family name hatnote|Varela|García|lang=Spanish}}
{{Infobox scientist
| image             = Francisco Varela.jpg
| image_size        =
| caption           = Varela in 1994
| birth_date        = {{birth date|1946|09|07}}
| birth_place       = [[Talcahuano]], Chile
| death_date        = {{death date and age|2001|05|28|1946|09|07|df=yes}}
| death_place       = [[Paris]], [[France]]
| field             = 
| work_institution  = [[École Polytechnique]]; [[CNRS]]; [[University of Paris]]; [[Mind and Life Institute]]
| alma_mater        = [[Pontifical Catholic University of Chile]]; [[University of Chile]]; [[Harvard University]]
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Torsten Wiesel]]
| thesis_title      = Insect retinas; visual processing in the compound eye
| thesis_url        = http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1235505640
| thesis_year       = 1970
| doctoral_students = <!-- notable students with existing Wikipedia articles -->
| known_for         = Theory of autopoiesis
| children          = [[Leonor Varela]]
| prizes            = 
| religion          = 
| footnotes         =  
}}
'''Francisco Javier Varela García''' (September 7, 1946 – May 28, 2001) was a Chilean [[biologist]], [[philosophy|philosopher]], [[cybernetician]], and [[neuroscientist]] who, together with his mentor [[Humberto Maturana]], is best known for introducing the concept of [[autopoiesis]] to biology, and for co-founding the [[Mind and Life Institute]] to promote dialog between science and [[Buddhism]].

==Life and career==
Varela was born in 1946 in [[Talcahuano]] in Chile, the son of Corina María Elena García Tapia and Raúl Andrés Varela Rodríguez.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Palacios |first1=Adrián G. |last2=Bacigalupo |first2=Juan |date=2003 |title=Francisco Varela (1946-2001):: Filling the mind - brain gap: A life adventure |journal=Biological Research |volume=36 |issue=1 |pages=9–12 |doi=10.4067/S0716-97602003000100002 |pmid=12795203 |issn=0716-9760|doi-access=free }}</ref> After completing secondary school at the Liceo Alemán del Verbo Divino in [[Santiago]] (1951–1963), like his mentor [[Humberto Maturana]], Varela temporarily studied medicine at the [[Pontifical Catholic University of Chile]] and graduated with a degree in biology from the [[University of Chile]]. He later obtained a Ph.D. in biology at [[Harvard University]]. His thesis, defended in 1970 and supervised by [[Torsten Wiesel]], was titled ''Insect Retinas: Information processing in the compound eye''.

After the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 military coup]] led by [[Augusto Pinochet]], Varela and his family spent 7 years in [[exile]] in the United States before he returned to Chile to become a professor of biology at the Universidad de Chile.

Varela became familiar, by practice, with [[Tibetan Buddhism]] in the 1970s, initially studying, together with [[Keun-Tshen Goba]] (''né'' Ezequiel Hernandez Urdaneta), with the meditation master [[Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche]], founder of [[Vajradhatu]] and [[Shambhala Training]], and later with [[Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche]]. 

In 1986, he settled in [[France]], where he first taught cognitive science and epistemology at the [[École Polytechnique]], and later neuroscience at the [[University of Paris]]. From 1988 until his death, he led a research group, as Director of Research at the [[CNRS]] (Centre National de Recherche Scientifique).

In 1987, Varela, along with [[R. Adam Engle]], founded the [[Mind and Life Institute]], initially to sponsor a series of dialogues between scientists and [[14th Dalai Lama|the Dalai Lama]] about the relationship between modern science and [[Buddhism]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mindandlife.org/history/|title=History|website=Mind & Life Institute|access-date=2020-09-09|archive-date=2020-09-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200919184137/https://www.mindandlife.org/history/|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Institute continues today as a major nexus for such dialog as well as promoting and supporting multidisciplinary scientific investigation in mind sciences, contemplative scholarship and practice and related areas in the interface of science with [[meditation]] and other [[Contemplative|contemplative practices]], especially [[Buddhist meditation|Buddhist practices]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mindandlife.org/mission/|title=Mission|website=Mind & Life Institute}}</ref>

Varela died in 2001 in [[Paris]] of [[Hepatitis C]] after having written an account of his 1998 liver transplant.<ref>"[http://www.oikos.org/varelafragments.htm Intimate Distances - Fragments for a Phenomenology of Organ Transplantation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160926014234/http://www.oikos.org/varelafragments.htm |date=2016-09-26 }}"</ref> Varela had four children, including the actress, environmental spokesperson, and model [[Leonor Varela]].

==Work and legacy==
{{Integral theory}}
Varela was trained as a biologist, mathematician and philosopher through the influence of different teachers, [[Humberto Maturana]] and [[Torsten Wiesel]].

He wrote and edited a number of books and numerous journal articles in [[biology]], [[neurology]], [[cognitive science]], [[mathematics]], and [[philosophy]]. He founded, with others, the [[Integral Institute]], a [[thinktank]] dedicated to the cross-fertilization of ideas and disciplines.

Varela supported [[embodied philosophy]], viewing human [[cognition]] and [[consciousness]] in terms of the [[enaction|enactive structures]] in which they arise. These comprise the body (as a biological system and as personally experienced) and the physical world which it enacts.<ref>p. 148 'This shift requires that we move away from the idea of the world as independent and extrinsic, to the idea of a world as inseparable from the structure of these processes of self-modification.' Varela, Francisco J., Thompson, Evan T., and Rosch, Eleanor. (1991). The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience. Cambridge, MA: The [[MIT Press]]. {{ISBN|0-262-72021-3}}</ref>

Varela's work popularized within the field of neuroscience the concept of [[neurophenomenology]]. This concept combined the [[Phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenology]] of [[Edmund Husserl]] and of [[Maurice Merleau-Ponty]], with "first-person science." Neurophenomenology requires observers to examine their own conscious experience using scientifically verifiable methods.

In the 1996 popular book ''The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems'', physicist [[Fritjof Capra]] makes extensive reference to Varela and Maturana's theory of [[autopoiesis]] as part of a new, [[Systems thinking|systems-based]] scientific approach for describing the interrelationships and interdependence of psychological, biological, physical, social, and cultural phenomena.<ref>{{cite book |last=Capra |first=Fritjof |date=1996 |title=The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems |url=https://archive.org/details/weboflifenewscie00capr |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=Anchor Books |isbn=978-0385476768 }}</ref> Written for a general audience, ''The Web of Life'' helped popularize the work of Varela and Maturana, as well as that of [[Ilya Prigogine]] and [[Gregory Bateson]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.scottlondon.com/reviews/capra.html |title=THE WEB OF LIFE: Book Review |last=London |first=Scott |date=1998 |website=Scottlondon.com |access-date=9 Dec 2018}}</ref>

Varela's 1991 book ''The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience'', co-authored with [[Evan Thompson]] and [[Eleanor Rosch]], is considered a classic in the field of cognitive science, offering pioneering phenomenological connections and introducing the Buddhism-informed [[enactivist]] and [[embodied cognition]] approach.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://metapsychology.net/index.php/book-review/the-embodied-mind-cognitive-science-and-human-experience/ |title=Review - The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience Revised Edition |last=Walmsley |first=Lachlan Douglas  |date=2 May 2017 |website=Metapsychology Online |publisher=Metapsychology (Volume 21, Issue 18) |access-date=10 Dec 2018}}</ref> A revised edition of ''The Embodied Mind'' was published in 2017, featuring substantive introductions by the surviving authors, as well as a preface by [[Jon Kabat-Zinn]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262529365/the-embodied-mind/ |title=The Embodied Mind, Revised Edition |date=January 2017|website=mitpress.mit.edu |publisher=The MIT Press |isbn=9780262529365 |access-date=7 Jan 2025}}</ref>

==Publications==
Varela wrote numerous books and articles:<ref>Comprehensive [http://www.enolagaia.com/Varela.html#Bib bibliography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171110121837/http://www.enolagaia.com/Varela.html#Bib |date=2017-11-10 }} by Randall Whitaker.</ref>

===Books===
* 1979. [https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-monograph/5965/Principles-of-Biological-Autonomy Principles of Biological Autonomy]. [[MIT Press]].
* 1980 (with [[Humberto Maturana]]). ''Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living''. Boston: Reidel.
* 1987 (rev 1992, 1998) (with [[Humberto Maturana|Maturana]]). ''The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding''. Boston: Shambhala Press. {{ISBN|978-0877736424}}
* 1988. ''Connaître:Les Sciences Cognitives, tendences et perspectivess''. [[Éditions du Seuil]], [[Paris]].
* 1991 (rev 2017) (with [[Evan Thompson]] and [[Eleanor Rosch]]). ''The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience''. MIT Press.  {{ISBN|978-0-262-72021-2}}
* 1992 (with P. Bourgine, eds.). ''Towards a Practice of Autonomous Systems: The First European Conference on Artificial Life''. MIT Press.
* 1992 (with J. Hayward, eds.). ''Gentle Bridges: Dialogues Between the Cognitive Sciences and the Buddhist Tradition''. Boston: Shambhala Press. [Reprinted, 2014, as ''Gentle Bridges: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on the Sciences of Mind''.]
* 1993 (with W. Stein, eds.). ''Thinking About Biology: An Introduction to Theoretical Biology''. Addison-Wesley, SFI Series on Complexity. [Reprinted, 2018, as ''Thinking About Biology: An Invitation to Current Theoretical Biology'', CRC Press.]
* 1997 (ed.). ''Sleeping, Dreaming and Dying: An Exploration of Consciousness with the Dalai Lama''. Boston: Wisdom Books.
* 1999. ''Ethical Know-How: Action, Wisdom and Cognition''. Stanford University Press.
* 1999 (with J. Shear, eds.). ''The View from Within: First-Person Methodologies in the Study of Consciousness''. London: Imprint Academic.
*1999 (with  J. Petitot, B. Pachoud, and J-M. Roy, eds.). ''Naturalizing Phenomenology: Contemporary Issues in Phenomenology and Cognitive Science''. Stanford University Press.

===Notable articles===
* 2002 (with A. Weber). 'Life after Kant: Natural purposes and the autopoietic foundations of biological individuality'. ''Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences'' I:97–125, 2002.

==See also==
{{Portal|Systems science}}
* [[Cartesian anxiety]]
* [[Enactivism]]
* [[Meaning-making]]
* [[Molecular cellular cognition]]
* [[Neural oscillation]]
* [[Umwelt]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* [[Sarat Maharaj]] & Francisco Varela in conversation: "Ahamkara". In: [[Florian Dombois]], Ute Meta Bauer, Claudia Mareis, and Michael Schwab, eds. ''Intellectual Birdhouse: Artistic Practice as Research''. London: Koenig, 2011. {{ISBN|978-3-86335-118-2}}.

==External links==
{{Commons|Francisco Varela}}
{{wikiquote}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160926014234/http://www.oikos.org/varelafragments.htm Intimate Distances] An autobiographical essay written shortly before his death
* Francisco Varela: In memoriam:
** [http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/varela/varela_index.html John Brockman]
** [http://www.enolagaia.com/Varela.html Randall Whitaker] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171110121837/http://www.enolagaia.com/Varela.html |date=2017-11-10 }}
*''The Embodied Mind'':
** [http://www.yorku.ca/evant/ Evan Thompson] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060216190709/http://www.yorku.ca/evant/ |date=2006-02-16 }}, coauthor.
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20060313140912/http://psychology.berkeley.edu/faculty/profiles/erosch.html Eleanor Rosch], coauthor.
** [[Daniel Dennett]], 1993, "[https://dl.tufts.edu/concern/pdfs/rn301c501 Review of The Embodied Mind]," ''American Journal of Psychology 106'': 121–26.
* "[https://web.archive.org/web/20060406164458/http://enactive.do.sapo.pt/ Escher, enaction & intersubjectivity.]"
* "[https://web.archive.org/web/20070618111131/http://www.expo-cosmos.or.jp/letter/letter12e.html Why the mind is not in the head]" The Cosmos Letter, Expo'90 Foundation, Japan
* Franz Reichle, 2004. [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000UEMA68 Film Monte Grande - What is Life?]

{{Cybernetics}}
{{Systems}}
{{Philosophy of biology}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Varela, Francisco}}
[[Category:1946 births]]
[[Category:2001 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Santiago, Chile]]
[[Category:Tibetan Buddhists from Chile]]
[[Category:Chilean biologists]]
[[Category:Chilean people of Galician descent]]
[[Category:Chilean philosophers]]
[[Category:Chilean scientists]]
[[Category:Complex systems scientists]]
[[Category:Converts to Buddhism]]
[[Category:Consciousness researchers and theorists]]
[[Category:Cyberneticists]]
[[Category:Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni]]
[[Category:Integral theory]]
[[Category:Systems scientists]]
[[Category:Theoretical biologists]]
[[Category:Colegio del Verbo Divino alumni]]
[[Category:French National Centre for Scientific Research scientists]]
[[Category:Pontifical Catholic University of Chile alumni]]
[[Category:University of Chile alumni]]
[[Category:Deaths from hepatitis]]
[[Category:20th-century American writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Chilean philosophers]]
[[Category:Researchers of artificial life]]
[[Category:20th-century Chilean biologists]]
[[Category:Academic staff of École Polytechnique]]
[[Category:Research directors of the French National Centre for Scientific Research]]