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(7) The observer is a living system and an understanding of cognition as a

biological phenomenon must account for the observer and his role in it.

THE LIVING SYSTEM

(1) Living systems are units of interactions; they exist in an ambience. From a
purely biological point of view they cannot be understood independently of
that part of the ambience with which they interact: the niche; nor can the niche
be defined independently of the living system that specifies it.
(2) Living systems as they exist on earth today are characterized by exergonic
metabolism, growth and internal molecular reproduction, all organized in a
closed causal circular process that allows for evolutionary change in the way
the circularity is maintained, but not for the loss of the circularity itself.
Exergonic metabolism is required to provide energy for the endergonic
synthesis of specific polymers (proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, polysaccharides)
from the corresponding monomers, that is, for growth and replication; special
replication procedures secure that the polymers synthesized be specific, that
they should have the monomer sequence proper to their class; specific
polymers (enzymes) are required for the exergonic metabolism and the
synthesis of specific polymers (proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, polysaccharides)
[Cf. Commoner, 19651.
This circular organization constitutes a homeostatic system whose function is
to produce and maintain this very same circular organization by determining
that the components that specify it be those whose synthesis or maintenance it
secures. Furthermore, this circular organization defines a living system as a
unit of interactions and is essential for its maintenance as a unit; that which is
not in it is external to it or does not exist. The circular organization in which
the components that specify it are those whose synthesis or maintenance it
secures in a manner such that the product of their functioning is the same
functioning organization that produces them, is the living organization.
(3) It is the circularity of its organization that makes a living system a unit of
interactions, and it is this circularity that it must maintain in order to remain a
living system and to retain its identity through different interactions. All the
peculiar aspects of the different kinds of organisms are superimposed on this
basic circularity and are subsequent to it, securing its continuance through
successive interactions in an always changing environment. A living system
defines through its organization the domain of all interactions into which it can
possibly enter without losing its identity, and it maintains its identity only as
long as the basic circularity that defines it as a unit of