Process-Philosophical Perspectives on Biology

Intuiting Life

Edited By: Spyridon A. Koutroufinis, Arthur Araujo

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Traditional reductionistic metaphysics fails to explain the complexity of life. This book explores process metaphysics to advance our understanding of biological concepts, ascribing subjective interiority and intrinsic value to all living beings, from microbes to animals.

Many life scientists implicitly assume a materialistic metaphysics that is based on the worldview of the 19th century. This sort of reductionistic metaphysics does not…

Many life scientists implicitly assume a materialistic metaphysics that is based on the worldview of the 19th century. This sort of reductionistic metaphysics does not do justice to the complexity of biological phenomena, leaving many features of living processes unexplained. The authors of this book explore the viability of process metaphysics to advance our understanding of fundamental biological concepts such as organism, ontogeny, agency, teleology, environment, and normativity. Based on the metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead and other process thinkers, the authors ascribe subjective interiority to all living beings, from unicellular organisms to the most complex animals. This book highlights the uniqueness and intrinsic value of living beings. It presents a new approach to essential dimensions of the phenomenon of life with the aim of opening up new horizons in the thinking of philosophers, philosophers of biology, life scientists, and environmentalists.

Spyridon A. Koutroufinis is Privatdozent (Associate Professor) for philosophy at the Technical University of Berlin. Between 2012 and 2014 he was Visiting Associate Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He has specialized in process philosophy, biophilosophy, classical metaphysics and complexity theory. His research focus is the establishment of a new theory of the organism. He is the author and editor of six books and numerous articles and book chapters.

Arthur Araujo obtained his PhD in Philosophy from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (2001). He is a Professor of Philosophy with a focus on the following fields: Philosophy of Mind and Philosophy of Biology. His other interests include: Pragmatism, Biosemiotics and Semiotics, Philosophy of Ordinary Language, Evolution and Organism. He is a founding member and the current coordinator of the Semiotics and Pragmatism Work Group, at the National Association of Graduate Studies in Philosophy, in Brazil.

Gernot Falkner, Regine Kather, Arthur Araujo, Spyridon A. Koutroufinis, Attila Grandpierre, Johanna Häusler, Philip Tryon, Federico Giorgi, Matthew David Segall, Nathaniel F. Barrett