Missing the Woods for the Trees: Neglected Aspects of Francisco Varela’s Work

In the past three decades, the work of Francisco Varela has had an enormous impact on current developments in contemporary science. His thought was extremely complex and multifaceted, and while some aspects – notably his contributions to the autopoietic theory of living and enactivist approach to cognition – have gained widespread acclaim, others have been ignored or watered down. In the new special issue that was published today 55 target articles and open peer commentaries shed light on Varela‘s contributions to science.