Paper (2024): Closure of Constraints and the Individuation of Causal Systems in Biology

Published as part of The Routledge Handbook of Causality and Causal Methods and available open access here.

Abstract: In order to carry out many scientific practices, say, doing measurements, building explanations, planning interventions, it is necessary to identify which causal systems will be measured, explained or intervened upon. Accordingly, it is important in biological research to individuate living systems (both synchronically and diachronically), and to clearly establish what are their boundaries as causal systems. This is challenging as exemplified by difficulties in telling exactly which items belong to or are external to a system and which specific region of space is occupied by it. In this chapter, we consider the problem of how to ascertain the individuality of living beings as causal systems from the perspective of the theory of biological autonomy. This theory grounds the individuality of living systems on the notion of closure of constraints. This provides a promising way of functionally ascertaining the boundaries and the unity of living systems, based on a causal regime proposed to be distinctively biological.