>Be careful: are you assuming any a priori relation between the "entity" and
>the "system"?
He is just framing that a component of an autopoietic system obtains its
identity and definition from the autopoietic system.
> A liver is still
>a liver if I remove it from my body. But if you remove a hurricane from the
>earth it will not be a hurricane any more. But you don't want to call a
>hurricane a component, and I think you would my liver.
I am not sure. A liver disintegrates a little slower than does a hurricane, but
both will eventually disintegrate as a result of being removed from their
respective contexts. Once removed from the autopoietic network the liver will
disintegrate (and also the autopoietic network). The hurricane isn't autopoietic
of course, so it isn't really the best comparison.
Onar.