Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
does not succeed in totally eliminating finalism because a machine
is built by its designer according to a plan decided in advance for
fulfilling a function. All the parts making it up are adjusted relative
to each other to fulfil this overall purpose. Necessity rules supreme.
Cellular Darwinism also considers life as an exclusively physical and
chemical phenomenon, and from this point of view, it is mechanis-
tic; but, contrary to traditional mechanism, which is fundamentally
deterministic, it is based on probabilistic laws. The Man Machine,
as far as cellular Darwinism is concerned, is a 'Random Man' and
thus escapes totally from finalism and essentialism.
Cellular Darwinism is also different from theories of self-
organisation, which postulate that matter is not inert but on the
contrary has creative properties producing life. Man, according to
these theories, cannot therefore arise from chance.
1.3
The same kind of laws govern biology and physics
In physics, order is subjective because it is related to the level of
observation at which the experimenter places himself and to the
degree of accuracy that he sets. Macroscopic order at our level of
existence arises from microscopic disorder. The behaviour of mole-
cules and atoms when considered individually is intrinsically ran-
dom but this molecular disorder is insignificant at the macroscopic
level. Due to the huge number of particles making up systems, the
individual variability of each molecule is negligible compared with
the average behaviour of the whole. Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961)
spoke in this respect of the principle of 'order from disorder' which
governs physics. In contrast, as regards molecular biology and
genetics, biology is supposed to be subject to a principle of 'order
from order'. The order is supposed to be real, intrinsic to the living
thing and irrespective of the subjectivity of the observer. The
macroscopic organisation of living beings is said to be produced
from the microscopic order laid down in the chromosomes in the
form of genetic information. This theory holds that biological mol-
ecules do not collect together according to the probabilistic laws of
