Bich, Leonardo (2019) The problem of functional boundaries in prebiotic and inter-biological systems. Minati, G., Pessa E. and Abram, M. (eds) Systemics of Incompleteness and Quasi-Systems. pp. 295-302.
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Abstract
The concept of organisational closure, interpreted as a set of internally pro-duced and mutually dependent constraints, allows understanding organisms as functionally integrated systems capable of self-production and self-maintenance through the control exerted upon biosynthetic processes and the exchanges of matter and energy with the environment. One of the current challenges faced by this theoretical framework is to account for limit cases in which a robust functional closure cannot be realised from within. In order to achieve functional sufficiency and persist, prebiotic or biological systems may need to recruit external constraints or expand their network of control in-teractions to include other autonomous systems. These phenomena seem to contrast with the very idea of closure and the capability of living systems to specify their functional boundaries from within. This paper will analyse from an organisational perspective the role of environmental scaffolds and of dif-ferent classes of intersystem interactions in prebiotic and supra-organismal biological scenarios, and show how the theoretical framework based on the notion of closure can account for these cases.
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| Item Type: | Published Article or Volume | ||||||
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| Keywords: | biological autonomy; organisation; functions: organisational closure; symbiosis; Origins of life; functional integration | ||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Biology Specific Sciences > Biology > Function/Teleology Specific Sciences > Complex Systems General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science |
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| Depositing User: | Dr. Leonardo Bich | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 22 Jun 2019 13:43 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 22 Jun 2019 13:43 | ||||||
| Item ID: | 16144 | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Minati, G., Pessa E. and Abram, M. (eds) Systemics of Incompleteness and Quasi-Systems | ||||||
| Publisher: | Springer | ||||||
| Official URL: | https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-03... | ||||||
| DOI or Unique Handle: | 10.1007/978-3-030-15277-2_23 | ||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Biology Specific Sciences > Biology > Function/Teleology Specific Sciences > Complex Systems General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science |
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| Date: | 2019 | ||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 295-302 | ||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/16144 |
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