?
Не такая трудная проблема: Франциско Варела о взаимосвязи сознания, природы и жизни
The article attempts to reconstruct the work of F. Varela with relevance to the hard problem of consciousness. This problem was touched by Varela in relatively late period of his work. However, the implications for a dissolution of this problem can be found in his earlier works with H. Maturana. The theory of autopoietic systems ties life and cognition together. The main criterion of the living system is an ability to maintain the autopoietic organization while undergoing structural transformations with the environment. The fact of multiple realizability of the autopoietic organizations leads to radical conclusion on the nature of knowledge. One can distinguish the knower and the known only contingently, for the structure of knowledge reflects the cognitive structure of the knower. This intertwinement permits Varela to introduce the enactivist program, which presupposes not simply the reform in the scientific research of consciousness, but also rethinking of the implications of the scientific knowledge itself. Varela intended to withdraw from the very theoretical approach to the problem of consciousness. His aim was not to provide a new argument. This is a consequence of the enactivist position which, according to the theory of autopoiesis, must be applicable to the knower herself.