ARE OSMOTIC OR SOCIAL-SYSTEMS AUTOPOIETIC - A REPLY IN THE NEGATIVE

Zeleny and Hufford apply the criteria of autopoiesis 1) to Leduc's osmotic systems to claim that certain non-biological physical systems are autopoietic, and 2) to 'the human family' to claim that spontaneous social systems are autopoietic. I find, first, that the authors fail to show either kind of system to be autopoietic, and further, that their claimed success at showing autopoiesis derives from fundamental problems of logical types: in confusing system levels (discrete system components as distinct from the unitary whole) and in conflating system domains (physical, biological, and social). Finally, I contend that by its criteria autopoiesis is restricted to systems in the physical domain-that is, components, transformations, and production in autopoiesis are necessarily physical. While spontaneous systems in the social domain may be marked by relationships among its members (and may even be organizationally closed), they are not autopoietic.