Chance vs. Necessity in Living Systems: A False Antinomy.
The concepts of order and randomness are crucial to understand 'living systems' structural and dynamical rules. In the history of biology, they lay behind the everlasting debate on the relative roles of chance and determinism in evolution. Jacques Monod [1970] built a theory where chance (randomness...
| Publicado en: | Biology Forum / Rivista di Biologia Vol. 101; no. 1; pp. 29 - 66 |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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Fabrizio Serra Editore
2008
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=33019555&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 33019555 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 18256538 M1F jtl: Biology Forum / Rivista di Biologia issn: 18256538 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: 2008 vid: 101 iid: 1 pid: 50689 pub: Fabrizio Serra Editore artinfo: ui: 33019555 ppf: 29 ppct: 37 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 175KB tig: atl: Chance vs. Necessity in Living Systems: A False Antinomy. aug: au: Buiatti, Marcello Buiatti, Marco affil: Dept. of Evolutionary Biology, Firenze University, Firenze (Italy) Center for Mind Brain Sciences, Trento University, Trento (Italy) su: Biological determinism Monod, Jacques, 1910-1976 Life (Biology) Natural selection Biology sug: subj: Biological determinism Monod, Jacques, 1910-1976 Life (Biology) Natural selection Biology ab: The concepts of order and randomness are crucial to understand 'living systems' structural and dynamical rules. In the history of biology, they lay behind the everlasting debate on the relative roles of chance and determinism in evolution. Jacques Monod [1970] built a theory where chance (randomness) and determinism (order) were considered as two complementary aspects of life. In the present paper, we will give an up to date version of the problem going beyond the dichotomy between chance and determinism. To this end, we will first see how the view on living systems has evolved from the mechanistic one of the 19th century to the one stemming from the most recent literature, where they emerge as complex systems continuously evolving through multiple interactions among their components and with the surrounding environment. We will then report on the ever increasing evidence of "friendly" co-existence in living beings between a number of "variability generators", fixed by evolution, and the "spontaneous order" derived from interactions between components. We will propose that the "disorder" generated is "benevolent" because it allows living systems to rapidly adapt to changes in the environment by continuously changing, while keeping their internal harmony. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Biology Forum / Rivista di Biologia is the property of Fabrizio Serra Editore and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Biology Forum / Rivista di Biologia holder: Fabrizio Serra Editore dt: @attributes: year: 2008 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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