Physics - Molecular Theory of the Living Cell - page 30

Table 2.7 Some examples (numbered 1-14) of complementarities found in physics, biology, and
philosophy. The term “quons” refer to quantum objects (e.g., photons, electrons) that exhibit
wave-particle duality

Familiar concept (macroscopic,
commonsensical, traditional,
superficial) (A and B)

Unfamiliar concept (microscopic,
specialized, nontraditional, deep) (C) Fields

Physics 1. Waves and particles Quons (or wavicles) (Herbert 1987)

2. Kinematics and dynamics Quantum mechanics

Biology 3. Information and energy Gnergy (Ji 1985a, 1991)

4. Living and nonliving Biomolecular processes

Philosophy 5. Matter and form Hylomorph (Aristotle)

6. Extension and thought Substance (also called Nature, or God)

(Spinoza)

7. Secondness and thirdness Firstness (Peirce)?

8. Mind and body Flesh (Merleau-Ponty) (Dillon 1997)

9. Mind and matter Implicate order (Bohm 1980)

10. Yin and Yang Tao (Lao-tzu)

11. Global and local Complementarism? (Pais 1991; Ji 1995)

12. Forest and trees Complementarism? (Pais 1991; Ji 1995)

13. Whole and parts Complementarism? (Pais 1991; Ji 1995)

14. Holism and reductionism Complementarism? (Pais 1991; Ji 1995)

In agreement with Bohr, I believe that the complementarity concept as used in
physics and the Taoist philosophy can be applied to biology. Furthermore, I have long
advocated the idea that information and energy constitute a new complementary pair
(i.e., A and B in Fig. 2.5 ) with gnergy serving as their source, i.e., the C term.
Organisms and abiotic objects may be another example of the complementary pair,
with molecular biological processes (e.g., enzyme-catalyzed chemical reactions,
molecular motor actions) serving as the C term. If this reasoning is valid, we can
conclude that biomolecular processes can be viewed as either living or nonliving,
depending on the context, namely, the way one measures (or observes) them, just as
light can be viewed as waves or particles depending on the measuring instruments
employed. This would resolve the controversy about whether or not biochemical
processes are living processes. They are living when occurring inside the cell and
not when occurring in a test tube . That is, the meaning of biochemical processes is
context-dependent. The importance of the context and perspectives in philosophical
discourses have recently been emphasized in transcendental perspectivism of
Krieglstein (2002), which should apply to biological theorizing with an equal force
as illustrated in a recent review article in theoretical biology (Lesne 2008).
Bohm's idea of implicate order (Bohm and Hiley 1993) as the source of mind
and matter may be accommodated within the complementarity framework
described in Table 2.5 . This is surprising because, within the field of quantum
physics itself, Bohr and Bohm represent the two opposite schools of thought as
regards

their interpretation of quantum objects (i.e., acausal vs. causal

interpretations) (Plotnitsky 2006).