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Resurrection of Dormant Daphnia magna: Protocol and Applications
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Prolegomenon to patterns in evolution.

Stuart A Kauffman1

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Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

The dream of a grand, predictive theory of evolution is false. Biology

Keywords:
Adjacent possiblesEnabling constraintsFunctional closurePurposeless teleologyStatistical laws

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Philosophy of Science
  • Theoretical Biology

Background:

  • The prevailing view in science seeks grand, predictive theories, akin to Newtonian physics.
  • Biological evolution, particularly the biosphere's trajectory, is often pursued with this predictive ambition.
  • This ambition is challenged by the inherent nature of biological systems and their historical contingency.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To demonstrate that a complete, predictive theory of evolution, analogous to physics, is unattainable.
  • To establish the unique role of 'function' as a concept that elevates biology above physics.
  • To propose an alternative explanatory framework for understanding evolutionary processes.

Main Methods:

  • Conceptual analysis of the term 'function' in biology versus 'happenings' in physics.
  • Argumentation based on the unprestatable nature of emergent biological functions.
  • Development of a 'post-entailing law' explanatory framework.

Main Results:

  • Biological functions are emergent, novel, and cannot be fully predicted or pre-stated.
  • The concept of function is irreducible to physics, precluding a purely mechanistic, predictive evolutionary theory.
  • Evolutionary actuals create new boundary conditions, enabling unprestatable adjacent possibilities.

Conclusions:

  • The dream of a grand, predictive theory of biosphere evolution is fundamentally false.
  • A new framework is needed, emphasizing functional closure, historical contingency, and formal causality.
  • This framework better explains evolutionary patterns like extinction events and species distribution.