Living systems are inferential, inductive, cognitive, circular, and historical systems, but they are not goal directed.


Living systems as interacting units cannot enter into interactions that are not prescribed by their organization. The circularity of their organization continuously brings them back to the same internal state (same with respect to the cyclic process). Each internal state requires that certain conditions (interactions with the environment) be satisfied to proceed to the next one. The circular organization implies the prediction that a necessary interaction that took place will take place again. If this does not happen, the system degenerates; if the predicted interaction takes place, the system maintains its identity (integrity) and enters into a new prediction. In a continously changing environment these predictions can be successful only if the enviroment does not change in that which is predicted. Accordingly, the predictions implied in the organization of the living system are not predictions of particular events but of classes of interactions. Every interaction is a particular interaction, but every prediction is a prediction of a class of interactions that is defined by those features in its members which will allow the living system to retain its circular organization after the interaction and, thus, interact again. This makes living systems inferential systems and their domain of interactions a cognitive domain. (NC 6)

Living systems as they exist on the earth today are characterized by exergonic metabolism, growth, and replication (and reproduction), all organized in a closed casual circular process that allows for evolutionary changes in the way the circularity is maintained, but not for loss of the circularity: exergonic metabolism is required to provide energy for the endergonic synthesis of specific polymers (proteins, nucleic acids, lipides, polysaccharides) from the corresponding monomers, that is for growth and reproduction; special replication procedures are needed to secure that the polymers synthesized be specific, that is, that they should have the monomeric sequence proper to their class; specific polymers (enzymes) are required for exergonic metabolism and the synthesis of specific polymers (proteins, nucleic acids, lipides, polysaccharides). This circular organization determines that the components that specify it be those whose synthesis it secures. Hence, its circular nature is essential for its maintenance and its operation as a unit. That which is not in it is external to it or does not exist. This circular organization is the living organization. (NC 5)

For this same reason living systems are historical systems: the relevance of a given conduct or mode of behaving is determined always in the past. The goal state (in the language of the observer) that controls the development of an organism is -- except for mutations -- determined by the parent organism. In these circumstances, then, a behavior is relevant if it allows the organism to behave again in a similar manner, and does so by maintaining its basic circularity. With the expansion of the cognitive domain during evolution the types of behavior have changed as well as how they implement their relevance: different kinds of behavior are relevent to the maintenance of the basic circularity of the living organization through different domains of interactions. (NC 16)

Every interaction is a particular interaction, but every prediction is a prediction of a class of interactions that is defined by those features of its elements that will allow the living system to retain its circular organization after the interaction, and thus, to interact again. This makes living systems inferential systems, and their domain of interactions a cognitive domain. (BC 10)

A living system, due to its circular organization, is am inductive system and functions always in a predictive manner: what happened once will occur again. Its organization, (genetic and otherwise) is conservative and repeats only that which works. For this same reason living systems are historical systems, the relevance of a given conduct or mode of behavior is always determined in the past. The goal state (in the language of the observer) that controls the development of an organism is, except for mutations, determined by the genome of the parent organism. The same is true for behavior in general; the present state is always specified from the previous state that restricts the field of possible modulations by independant concomitances. If a given state of relative activity in the nerve cells originates a given behavior, a recurrence of the "same state" of relative activity should give rise to the "same behavior" no matter how the recurrence originates. The relevance of such a behavior is determined by the significance that it has for the maintenance of the living organization, and it is in relation to this relevance that any subsequent behaviors are the same.

A living system is not a goal directed system; it is, like the nervous system, a stable state-determined and strictly deterministic system closed on itself and modulated by interactions not specified throuh its conduct. These modulations, however, are apparent as modulations only for the observer who beholds the organism or the nervous system externally, from his own conceptual (descriptive) perspective, as lying in an environment and as elements in his domain of interactions. (BC 39-40, 80)

Due to this organization a living system is an autonomous unity, self-assertive in its dynamic capacity to withstand deformation under continuous turnover of matter while remaining invariant in its own organization. (CS 460)


This page was last updated on July 7, 1996, by Rob Sable.