Newton, Aristotle, and the Modeling of Living Systems

Abstract

Here it’s argued that the modeling paradigm based upon the Newtonian view of interacting particles and forces is inadequate to capture two of the most essential features of systems involving living agents: self-repair and replication. A comparison of the Newtonian world-view with that of Aristotle is made in order to suggest the missing components in the Newtonian picture. Finally, a system-theoretic framework based upon the functional activities of a living cell is presented, extending the Newtonian picture to include the above critical features of living systems. Some of the mathematical properties of the resulting new processes, termed “metabolism-repair” systems, are given along with a discussion of their use as a modeling paradigm in the life, social and behavioral sciences. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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