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Four Kinds of Anticipatory (M-R) Life and a Definition of Sustainability

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Handbook of Anticipation

Abstract

This paper addresses the question “what makes a system whole and sustainable.” It applies a theory of whole systems (R-theory) derived from Robert Rosen’s original work in Relational Biology. A rigorous treatment of systemic holism can be articulated by expressing the logic of Rosen’s “modeling relation” between “natural” and “formal” systems in terms of cyclical causality (closed loops of causation) comprising four fundamental causes in nature, two describing observable and two describing contextual domains. Rosen presented what he believed to be the minimum causal requirement for a system to be alive, in the efficient cause closure of a “Metabolism-Repair (M-R) System.” This was presented as proof that life is not a mechanism but rather an anticipatory system containing “impredicative” (causally isolated) models. However, he did not go on to articulate the more general worldview that these observations would imply. R-theory attempts to do so, generalizing M-R closure and modeling relations to propose a mathematical object, the holon, in category theory. The holon is an objectified modeling relation formalized as an analytical unit for describing whole natural systems and their fractions. As such they reify hidden contextual relations that are necessary to explain organization and origin of mechanistic causes and emergence of anticipatory and evolutionary identity (including concepts of “self”). The result is a quintessential (“of fifth essence”) unification of the traditional four causes as a cycle similar to ancient Vedic Cycles of causation that were lost in Western dualism. Such cycles necessitate and define an irreducible role for information as a transcendent process embedded in nature. Four basic types of life organization and strategy are predicted by the theory and found to correspond in significant detail with the organizational and strategic characteristics of the four main empirically determined taxonomic domains of life. They are Eukaryota, Archaea, and Bacteria as causally closed organism types, plus Protobiota, a pre-organismic type that includes subtypes sharing various M-R functions with a host or the environment. These four life types are proposed as archetypes that provide a scientific definition of sustainability in terms of causal closure. Such whole, sustainable cycles apply to organisms, living components of organisms, quasi-life forms, ecosystems, and socio-ecological systems as locally bounded systems. They also apply generally as an implicit unbounded latency in nature.

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  1. University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA

    John J. Kineman

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  1. Dept of Sociology & Social Research, University of Trento Dept of Sociology & Social Research, Trento, Italy

    Roberto Poli

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Kineman, J.J. (2018). Four Kinds of Anticipatory (M-R) Life and a Definition of Sustainability. In: Poli, R. (eds) Handbook of Anticipation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31737-3_53-1

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