Life and Process
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About this book
Alfred North Whitehead is arguably the most original 20th-century philosopher of nature and metaphysics. In recent decades a number of physicists have produced ground-breaking new theories in fundamental physics influenced by his process philosophy. In contrast, few biologists are even aware that Whitehead’s radical rethinking of the Cartesian assumptions implicit in 19th-century sciences might be relevant to their enterprise. This book seeks to fill this gap by exploring how Whitehead’s process ontology might provide a new philosophical foundation for the biosciences of the 21st century. The central premise shared by all of the volume’s authors is the idea that all living processes are irreducible processes. Each chapter focuses on assumptions implicit in some of the core concepts of biology – such as organism, evolution, information, and teleology – that play crucial explanatory roles in the biosciences, but as metaphysical concepts fall outside its purview. The authors each identify important shortcomings implicit in contemporary biological paradigms and show how an approach grounded in a process-oriented metaphysics can avoid them.
Author / Editor information
Spyridon Athanasios Koutroufinis, Technical University of Berlin, Germany/Rafina, Greece.
Supplementary Materials
Topics
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Frontmatter
i -
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Table of Contents
vii -
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Preface
ix -
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Acknowledgments I
xi -
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List of Contributors
xiii -
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Introduction: The Need for a New Biophilosophy
1 -
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Teleology and the Life Sciences: Between Limit Concept and Ontological Necessity
37 -
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The Experience of Environmental Phosphate Fluctuations by Cyanobacteria: an Essay on the Teleological Feature of Physiological Adaptation
73 -
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Beyond Systems Theoretical Explanations of an Organism’s Becoming: A Process Philosophical Approach
99 -
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Process and Action: Whitehead’s Ontological Units and Perceptuomotor Control Units
133 -
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Life in the Interstices: Systems Biology and Process Thought
157 -
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Quantum Biology: A Live Option
171 -
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The Effect of Mind upon Brain
183 -
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A Fourth Variable in Evolution
215 -
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Evolution without Tears: A Third Way beyond Neo-Darwinism and Intelligent Design
255 -
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Covariance and Evolution
275 -
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Index
307
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