Natural selection and self-organization in complex adaptive systems

The central theme of this work is self-organization "interpreted" both from the point of view of theoretical biology, and from a philosophical point of view. By analysing, on the one hand, those which are now considered--not only in the field of physics--some of the most important discoveries, that is complex systems and deterministic chaos and, on the other hand, the new frontiers of systemic biology, this work highlights how large thermodynamic systems which are open can spontaneously stay in an orderly regime. Such systems can represent the natural source of the order required for a stable self-organization, for homoeostasis and for hereditary variations. The order, emerging in enormous randomly interconnected nets of binary variables, is almost certainly only the precursor of similar orders emerging in all the varieties of complex systems. Hence, this work, by finding new foundations for the order pervading the living world, advances the daring hypothesis according to which Darwinian natural selection is not the only source of order in the biosphere. Thus, the article, by examining the passage from Prigogine's dissipative structures theory to the contemporary theory of biological complexity, highlights the development of a coherent and continuous line of research which is set to individuate the general principles marking the profound reality of that mysterious self-organization characterizing the complexity of life.