the condition of subordinating all changes to the maintenance of the organization. Self-asserting capacity of living systems to maintain their identity through the active compensation of deformations. (Maturana and Varela, 1979)
Attribute of an organizationally
closed system, i.e., a
system whose
organization is self-explanatory and by implication circular. The understanding of autonomous systems requires references neither to events outside that system e.g. causes (
see causality ), nor to a
metasystem of which it maybe a part for reasons other than what constitutes its organization. Autonomous systems possess (a) a recursive form of organization of (b) processes which continually constitute their own
unity by maintaining (c) a boundary within which its organization is realized (
see recursion, recognition ,
constitution ). (
krippendorff )
