Functional entailment and immanent causation in relational biology

Louie

pp. 289-302

in: Axiomathes 18 (3), 2008.

Abstract

I explicate the crucial role played by efficient cause in Robert Rosen's characterization of life, by elaborating on the topic of Aristotelian causality, and exploring the many alternate descriptions of causal and inferential entailments. In particular, I discuss the concepts of functional entailment and immanent causation, and examine how they fit into Robert Rosen's relational-biology universe of living, anticipatory, and complex systems.

Cited authors

Aristoteles