A Conceptual Foundation for Deeper Insights into Living & Nonliving Systems

Bhakti Madhava Puri, Ph. D. (Bhakti Vedanta Institute of Spiritual Culture and Science)

Systems biology necessarily concerns relational processes constituting all levels of organization of life, from the molecular to the cellular, organismic, and ecological, due to the energy exchange and feedback connecting these levels. Understanding the conceptual distinctions between mechanical, chemical, organic, and human bodies, determined by the interdependent dialectic dynamic between self and other (an individual and its environment), is fundamental to a deeper comprehension of such relational processes as well as distinguishing between life and nonlife. Based on G.W.F. Hegel’s philosophy, we will show how the identity of each kind of natural body is found in its other and that the extent to which a particular body unites with otherness, where this union is the claiming of its identity, determines its kind. The limitations that one type of body encounters while attempting to connect with its other sets the necessary standard for the determination of a new type of body. This conceptual development logically connects mechanical, chemical, organic, and human bodies, where the human is the most capable of integrating otherness thus truly claiming its identity. We will offer familiar empirical examples demonstrating the validity of this perspective in hopes of encouraging further applications.