ORDER (Generative) and EVOLUTION
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 2383 ▶ |
| Object type | General information |
D. BÖHM and F.D. PEAT discuss the meaning or generative order in relation to evolution. They write: “While the current neo-Darwinian theory is valid in its proper domain, it represents an abstraction from a much larger implicate and generative order, and its main significance is to be found in its relationship to this latter order” (1987, p.201).
This is an interesting hypothesis: Nothing is possible outside the basic generative order (for example biological life — at least of the kind we know — would be impossible in a universe wherein macromolecules could not be formed). In this sense, generative order is autopoietic. However, within the very wide reach of this order, creative variation is possible and the phase space of living systems can expand and finely divide. It ensues that evolution, while channeled, is and will necessarily be, a unfinished historic process.
Is this something that needs to be proved in the classical sense of scientific “proof”?