What Does the Idea of Autonomy Mean Today for Biology?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.48160/18532330me8.170Keywords:
autonomy, closure of constraints, function, interaction, identityAbstract
Ever since Darwin, biology has been based on the idea of evolution through natural selection, and this in turn has deeply influenced our scientific and philosophical understanding of biological phenomena and our place in nature. This work explores why modern-day biology should advance towards an even more fundamental idea, namely that of autonomy. The idea of autonomy reflects the fact that living organisms are self-organized systems capable of self-production and self-maintenance, which establish themselves as integrated entities in order to set out their own objectives and rules and foster the conditions necessary for their existence through their interactions with the environment. Nevertheless, to date, the idea of biological autonomy has been understood more as self-sufficiency, something in tension with collective forms of organization. In contrast to this view, I will argue that we should develop an idea of autonomy that complements these collective forms, recognizing the importance and ubiquity of collaboration and symbiosis which, far from opposing the thesis defended here, require the very idea of autonomy in order to be properly understood.
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