http://popups.lib.uliege.be/1373-5411/index.php?id=608 Index terms fr 0 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/1373-5411/index.php?id=4619 Biologists appeal to "functional explanation" as an ubiquitous explanatory strategy for understanding anticipation to environmental demands. However, functional explanation remains one of the most controversial issues in philosophy of biology : two main philosophical approaches address biological functions from disparate views. In this paper, I sketch out how neither etiological approaches nor systemic approaches pay enough attention to functional explanation as used in biological practice. I suggest that a detailed comparison of mechanisms in both accounts may be fruitful in identifying common problems and suitable solutions. Mon, 14 Oct 2024 15:26:45 +0200 Mon, 14 Oct 2024 15:26:53 +0200 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/1373-5411/index.php?id=4619 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/1373-5411/index.php?id=4595 The relational modeling strategy Robert Rosen introduced in chapter 5 of Life Itself in order to model biological organization is in many ways very remarkable, not in the least because he is able to give an account of final causation. This article gives an overview of the most characteristic steps of the relational modeling strategy, from the component to augmented abstract block diagrams, putting the emphasis on some epistemological aspects. Robert Rosen's modeling strategy is a formal representation of biological organization, specifically of circular causality. In this regard, the most important contribution of Robert Rosen is the anschaulichkeit - the intuitability - of the closure of the organization and of the intertwinement of the different Aristotelian causes, even if they are incommensurable. Mon, 14 Oct 2024 15:00:24 +0200 Mon, 14 Oct 2024 15:05:56 +0200 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/1373-5411/index.php?id=4595 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/1373-5411/index.php?id=2639 Systems Biology aims to take up the challenge of the post-genome era by developing means to handle the data flood in the contemporary 'omic' sciences. One of the challenges is to 'turn data into knowledge', which gives rise to the question of the functional meaning of the structural data. Systems Biology tries to answer this question by capturing the organisation of a biological system through mathematical and computational modelling. In this regard, however, there is some ambiguity concerning the notions of function, wholeness and system. In this paper, we intend to discuss this ambiguity by analysing the status of modelling in Systems Biology. We do so by articulating the source of the tensions between a relational and a mechanistic approach of living systems, and will inquire upon the potential relevance of a relational account for current Systems Biology. We draw upon Robert Rosen's relational account, in which functionality is an intrinsic and essential part of the organisation of a living system. An organism is complex, e.g. not amenable to a mechanistic, classical or engineering analysis. In this viewpoint, which is quite similar to Kant's, functionality has to be presupposed in order to 'save' the organism as a living system, It is the status of this presupposition that qualitatively distinguishes a mechanistic from a relational account, and it is the potentiality of that idea which deserves further investigation in current Systems Biology. Thu, 29 Aug 2024 15:33:42 +0200 Tue, 08 Oct 2024 13:05:18 +0200 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/1373-5411/index.php?id=2639 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/1373-5411/index.php?id=1748 A system is autonomous if it uses its own information to modify itself and its environment to enhance its survival, responding to both environmental and internal stimuli to modify its basic functions to increase its viability. Autonomy is the foundation of functionality, intentionality and meaning. Autonomous systems accommodate the unexpected through self-organizing processes, together with some constraints that maintain autonomy. Early versions of autonomy, such as autopoiesis and closure to efficient cause, made autonomous systems dynamically closed to information. This contrasts with recent work on open systems and information dynamics. On our account, autonomy is a matter of degree depending on the relative organization of the system and system environment interactions. A choice between third person openness and first person closure is not required. Tue, 16 Jul 2024 15:03:38 +0200 Tue, 16 Jul 2024 15:03:53 +0200 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/1373-5411/index.php?id=1748 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/1373-5411/index.php?id=606 An analysis of the use of the notions of "structure" and "function" in chemistry is presented. It is investigated how this can contribute to illuminate the current discussion concerning self-organization and natural selection in biology. Starting from the methodology used in organic syntheses it will be illustrated that in chemistry the natural way to link structure and function is offered by a reaction mechanism i.e. a particular sequence of events. Analysis of the methodology used in the kinetic modeling of complex chemical processes reveals that this link is being exploited but becomes obliterated in the final description of the behavior of the process. The relation with semiosis, the genotype/phenotype dichotomy, development system theory (P. Griffiths), process structuralism in biology (B. Goodwin) and the local/global dichotomy will be examined. Recent models on the origin of life as presented by S. Kauffman and Fontana's Alchemy will be discussed from this point of view. Fri, 28 Jun 2024 14:20:05 +0200 Fri, 28 Jun 2024 14:20:20 +0200 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/1373-5411/index.php?id=606