The autonomy of biological individuals and artificial models (original) (raw)
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Philosophy of Science, 2016
In Biological Autonomy, philosophers Alvaro Moreno and Matteo Mossio present a new theoretical framework for understanding how living organisms differ from other physical systems. Their framework, which they call the "autonomous perspective," addresses biological organisms qua systems. They show how it generates insights into a wide range of questions in philosophy of biology such as, Does causation operate top down? What are functions? Which is more fundamental for the origin of life-metabolism or replication? What distinguishes cognition as a kind of biological process? Moreno and Mossio's systems-oriented approach, with its holistic focus on the organizational features of biological systems (including the entire spectrum from bacteria to large multicellular organisms), is a welcome and refreshing departure from the contemporary plethora of mechanistic approaches that emphasize reductive accounts of biological systems as decomposable into hierarchies of parts and operations. The autonomous perspective also provides insights into why mechanistic explanation must be supplemented with other explanatory approaches. In this review, we briefly sketch some of the core ideas of the framework and how the authors apply it to two central problems in philosophy of biology: the nature of functions in biology and how to understand cognition in biological systems in general.
Biological Autonomy. A Philosophical and Theoretical Enquiry
Since Darwin, Biology has been framed on the idea of evolution by natural selection, which has profoundly influenced the scientific and philosophical comprehension of biological phenomena and of our place in Nature. This book argues that contemporary biology should progress towards and revolve around an even more fundamental idea, that of autonomy. Biological autonomy describes living organisms as organised systems, which are able to self-produce and self-maintain as integrated entities, to establish their own goals and norms, and to promote the conditions of their existence through their interactions with the environment. Topics covered in this book include organisation and biological emergence, organisms, agency, levels of autonomy, cognition, and a look at the historical dimension of autonomy. The current development of scientific investigations on autonomous organisation calls for a theoretical and philosophical analysis. This can contribute to the elaboration of an original understanding of life - including human life - on Earth, opening new perspectives and enabling fecund interactions with other existing theories and approaches. This book takes up the challenge.
Autopoiesis, Biological Autonomy and the Process View of Life
European Journal for Philosophy of Science, Published online: 26 October 2018; https://doi.org/10.1007/s13194-018-0228-2, 2019
In recent years, an increasing number of theoretical biologists and philosophers of biology have been opposing reductionist research agendas by appealing to the concept of biological autonomy which draws on the older concept of autopoiesis. In my paper, I investigate some of the ontological implications of this approach. The emphasis on autonomy and autopoiesis, together with the associated idea of organisational closure, might evoke the impression that organisms are to be categorised ontologically as substances: ontologically independent, well-individuated, discrete particulars. However, I argue that this is mistaken. Autopoiesis and biological autonomy, properly understood, require a rigorous commitment to a process ontological view of life.
Basic autonomy as a fundamental step in the synthesis of life
2004
In the search for the primary roots of autonomy (a pivotal concept in Varela’s comprehensive understanding of living beings), the theory of autopoiesis provided an explicit criterion to define minimal life in universal terms, and was taken as a guideline in the research program for the artificial synthesis of biological systems. Acknowledging the invaluable contribution of the autopoietic school to present biological thinking, we offer an alternative way of conceiving the most basic forms of autonomy. We give a bottom-up account of the origins of “self-production ” (or self-construction, as we propose to call it), pointing out which are the minimal material and energetic requirements for the constitution of basic autonomous systems. This account is, indeed, committed to the project of developing a general theory of biology, but well grounded in the universal laws of physics and chemistry. We consider that the autopoietic theory was formulated in highly abstract terms and, in order t...
2007
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Evolutionary transitions and autonomy
Our aim in the present paper is to approach the nature of life from the perspective of autonomy, showing that this perspective can be helpful for overcoming the traditional Cartesian gap between the physical and cognitive domains. We first argue that, although the phenomenon of life manifests itself as highly complex and multidimensional, requiring various levels of description, individual organisms constitute the core of this multifarious phenomenology. Thereafter, our discussion focuses on the nature of the organization of individual living entities, proposing autonomy as the main concept to grasp it. In the second part of the article we show how autonomy is also fundamental to explaining major evolutionary transitions, in an attempt to rethink evolution from the point of view of the organizational structure of the entities/organisms involved. This gives further support to the idea of autonomy not only as a key to understanding life in general but also the complex expressions of it that we observe on our planet. Finally, we suggest a possible general principle that underlies those evolutionary transitions, which allow for the open-ended redefinition of autonomous systems: namely, the relative dynamic decoupling that must be articulated among distinct parts, modules or modes of operation in these systems.
Mechanism, autonomy and biological explanation
Biology & Philosophy, 2021
The new mechanists and the autonomy approach both aim to account for how biological phenomena are explained. One identifies appeals to how components of a mechanism are organized so that their activities produce a phenomenon. The other directs attention towards the whole organism and focuses on how it achieves selfmaintenance. This paper discusses challenges each confronts and how each could benefit from collaboration with the other: the new mechanistic framework can gain by taking into account what happens outside individual mechanisms, while the autonomy approach can ground itself in biological research into how the actual components constituting an autonomous system interact and contribute in different ways to realize and maintain the system. To press the case that these two traditions should be constructively integrated we describe how three recent developments in the autonomy tradition together provide a bridge between the two traditions: (1) a framework of work and constraints, (2) a conception of function grounded in the organization of an autonomous system, and (3) a focus on control.
Self, Agency and Autonomy in Dynamical Living Systems
Synthesis philosophica, 2021
In this paper, I intend to offer a new explanation of the self both from the biological and dynamical systems theory perspectives. This means that I support the idea that the self is a consequence of biological control mechanisms, either of the internal processes or resulting from the interaction of an organism with the environment. From the perspective of the dynamical systems theory, the self will be approached as a bundle of patterns resulting from adapting of a living system to the conditions of the environment. In the first part of the paper, the self is understood starting from three characteristics of the living systems, resulting from the self-organisation of the organic matter: identity, unity and self-maintenance. In the second part, I discuss one of the most important characteristics of the self: agency. The sense of agency is approached as being made of three components: coupling of the organism with the world, the control of the internal and external processes, and prediction. In conclusion, I discuss the issue of the relation between the self and autonomy, considering the self as a consequence of the degrees of freedom of a living system.
Autonomy in evolution: from minimal to complex life
Our aim in the present paper is to approach the nature of life from the perspective of autonomy, showing that this perspective can be helpful for overcoming the traditional Cartesian gap between the physical and cognitive domains. We first argue that, although the phenomenon of life manifests itself as highly complex and multidimensional, requiring various levels of description, individual organisms constitute the core of this multifarious phenomenology. Thereafter, our discussion focuses on the nature of the organization of individual living entities, proposing autonomy as the main concept to grasp it. In the second part of the article we show how autonomy is also fundamental to explaining major evolutionary transitions, in an attempt to rethink evolution from the point of view of the organizational structure of the entities/organ-isms involved. This gives further support to the idea of autonomy not only as a key to understanding life in general but also the complex expressions of it that we observe on our planet. Finally, we suggest a possible general principle that underlies those evolutionary transitions, which allow for the open-ended redefinition of autonomous systems: namely, the relative dynamic decoupling that must be articulated among distinct parts, modules or modes of operation in these systems.