Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
human nature and destroying the foundations of our identity. We
will no longer be 'at home in the universe' as Kauffman said (1995)
but would be placed in a radically strange situation, returned to the
same rank as other beings, including inanimate objects. This is very
difficult for us to bear, even unthinkable, and results in the mental
block which makes it difficult to abandon hylemorphic ontology in
biology. Yet if our objective is to construct a rational biological the-
ory, we must analyse this question more rigorously and avoid being
dominated by our subjective and psychological feelings.
Biology's current ontology is based on the concept of specificity.
We must go beyond this naïve point of view and build 'aspecific'
biology. Does that seem absurd? There are nevertheless a great
many examples of scientific theories built on counterintuitive
propositions.
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It is not a question of denying the reality of the
species to remain in an academic quarrel, but of putting forward a
theory which avoids using a principle of order analogous to the for-
mal cause. Furthermore, Darwin and Bernard have already shown
us the way here. The former replaced the essentialist definition of
the species by a genealogical definition and the latter discarded
finalism in the notion of physiological function.
On the other hand, returning to a Hippocratic type of theory is
not a valid option. Such theories make the organism the origin
of ontogenesis as it emits the foam
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from its different parts. This
foam is the reflection of the pre-existing organised structure
(the organism). Like Aristotelian theories, they thus depend on a
principle of order from order. They must always rely on an organ-
ising principle intrinsic to matter, similar to holistic principles
(attraction of like by like in Hippocrates, Elsasser's holistic mem-
ory, emergent properties or the spontaneous tendency towards self-
organisation (see chapter 5).
In these respects, ontophylogenesis goes beyond this blind spot
of biology without regressing towards prescientific points of view.
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It has been a distinctive feature of a scientific theory probably since Copernicus.
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Or its equivalent in the different variants of the Hippocratic conception.
