Francisco Varela (Santiago, September 7, 1946 – May 28, 2001 in Paris) was a Chilean biologist and philosopher, who, together with Humberto Maturana, is most well-known for introducing the concept of autopoiesis to biology. He is also a proponent of the embodied philosophy which claims that human cognition and consciousness can only be understood in terms of the enactive structures in which they arise, namely the body, and the environment in which the body interacts. He made an impact on the neuroscience profession by introducing concepts such as neurophenomenology, based on writings of Husserl, and "first person science" in which observers apply scientifically verifiable methods for examining the nature of their own conscious experience.
He became a Tibetan Buddhist in the 1970s initially studying with the meditation master Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, founder of Shambhala Buddhism, and eventually with Tulku Ugyen, a Nepalese master of higher tantras. He was a founding member of the Integral Institute, a thinktank dedicated to the cross-fertilization of ideas and disciplines. He was the author of dozens of academic journal articles and several books which made impacts in the crosscurrents of several fields.
His death was caused by Hepatitis C. For his own account of his liver transplant, see "Intimate Distances - Fragments for a Phenomenology of Organ Transplantation"
He is also the father of actress and maxim model Leonor Varela.
See also
Bibliography
For a comprehensive bibliography, see Randall Whitaker's page.
