More than life itself : a synthetic continuation in relational biology / A.H. Louie.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Louie, A. H.

Series:

Categories (Frankfurt am Main, Germany) ; v. 1.

Categories ; v. 1

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Biology--Philosophy.

Biology.

Biological systems.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (412 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Frankfurt ; New Brunswick : Ontos Verlag, 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

A. H. Louie's More Than Life Itself is an exploratory journey in relational biology, a study of life in terms of the organization of entailment relations in living systems. This book represents a synergy of the mathematical theories of categories, lattices, and modelling, and the result is a synthetic biology that provides a characterization of life. Biology extends physics. Life is not a specialization of mechanism, but an expansive generalization of it. Organisms and machines share some common features, but organisms are not machines. Life is defined by a relational closure that places it beyond the reach of physicochemical and mechanistic dogma, outside the reductionistic universe, and into the realm of impredicativity. Function dictates structure. Complexity brings forth living beings.

Contents:

pt. 1. Exordium

pt. 2. Systems, models, and entailment

pt. 3. Simplex and complex

pt. 4. Hypotheses fingo

pt. 5. Epilogus.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

3-86838-044-2

3-11-032194-7

OCLC:

851972106