Overcoming the Newtonian paradigm: The unfinished project of theoretical biology from a Schellingian perspective

Abstract

ABSTRACT:Defending Robert Rosen's claim that in every confrontation between physics and biology it is physics that has always had to give ground, it is shown that many of the most important advances in mathematics and physics over the last two centuries have followed from Schelling's demand for a new physics that could make the emergence of life intelligible. Consequently, while reductionism prevails in biology, many biophysicists are resolutely anti-reductionist. This history is used to identify and defend a fragmented but progressive tradition of anti-reductionist biomathematics. It is shown that the mathematico-physico-chemico morphology research program, the biosemiotics movement, and the relational biology of Rosen, although they have developed independently of each other, are built on and advance this anti-reductionist tradition of thought. It is suggested that understanding this history and its relationship to the broader history of post-Newtonian science could provide guidance for and justify both the integration of these strands and radically new work in post-reductionist biomathematics.

Why natural science needs phenomenological philosophy

“…A previous Special Issue of this journal (Simeonov, Matsuno, and Root-Berstein 2013) already paved the way for what is presently set forth. There too, the Newtonian paradigm was called into question (see Gare 2013) and elements of phenomenological thinking were in evidence (see Matsuno 2013, Simeonov 2013). In the Issue now before you, phenomenological philosophy takes center stage and its relations to the natural sciences are examined in a comprehensive, thoroughgoing manner.…”

Quantum gravity and taoist cosmology: Exploring the ancient origins of phenomenological string theory

“…Whereas the Cartesian subject is anonymous, absent from the events that transpire, the participants in the dialectical community would function self-referentially to include themselves in the process (Matsuno exemplifies this by explicitly including himself as author in what he writes; 1995, 1998). Other important contributions come from Plamen Simeonov (2012), who has emphasized the need to devise first-person methodologies for the natural sciences; from Arran Gare (2013), with his insistence that science be grounded in a way that includes lived subjectivity; and from Louis Kauffman's (2015) reflections on how mathematical self-reference is related to topology and phenomenological philosophy. Still another contribution to emergent dialectical science is offered by the Jungian psychologist Nathan Schwartz-Salant (2007).…”

“…In this approach, the analysis of cosmogony is situated within cosmogony itself ("we are part of the world we are trying to know," says Gare;2013, 25). The unquestioned objective stance analysts have tended to take toward cosmic evolution is in fact characteristic of the fourth and final stage of projection in the Kleinian epoch of dimensional generation.…”

Integral Biomathics reloaded: 2015

“…The following new Key Themes (KT) have been identified and added to our Integral Biomathics research programme (Simeonov et al, 2012;Gare, 2013;Kauffman and Gare, 2015) in the course of the JPBMB publication activities in 2013 and 2015 (Simeonov et al, 2013;Simeonov et al, 2015).…”

“…Of course, such a system description addressing a challenging question like understanding the movements of viruses within the host organism (Zaichick et al, 2013) also implies a context (Kitto and Kortschak, 2013). The latter needs to be considered from a much broader perspective 4 (Gabora et al, 2013;Gare, 2013) of interest for further research.…”