The Philosophical Nature of Maturana’s Theory of Perception

This paper deals with the philosophical nature of H. R. Maturana’s theory of perception. For such a purpose, one of his core concepts, structural determinism, was closely examined, which revealed that his theory of perception is not an ontological/metaphysical idealism as realist philosophers regarded. My diagnosis is that his theory should be regarded as a version of epistemic idealism underpinned by what Maturana calls the substratum. Thus, he presented us a renewed view of objectivity based on our human biology of cognition, replacing the traditional view of objectivity.