Biological Autonomy and Systemic Integration

In this article I will outline the basic theoretical assumptions of two examples of the confederative and the integrative views of the living - respectively Ganti’s Chemoton theory and Maturana and Varela’s autopoietic theory - by showing that they are both consistent perspectives, but they differ in the accounts they make of the role of organization in biological systems. In doing so I will also put into evidence how the choice between these two theoretical frameworks is strictly connected to the problem of structure and function in living organisms and entails different strategies of investigation.