On Causality in Nonlinear Complex Systems: the Developmentalist Perspective

Abstract

This chapter describes developmentalism that views all non-random causality as a product of development at some level. Developmentalism helps resolve a number of long-standing dialectics concerned with causality, including reductionism/holism, orthogenesis/adaptation, and stasis/ change. In biological sciences, developmentalism engenders a discourse that overcomes barriers imposed by the still-dominant paradigms of molecular reductionism on the one hand and Darwinian evolution on the other. With regard to the former, it provides a better interpretive framework for the new science of “systems-biology,” which seeks to elucidate regulatory networks that control ontogeny, stem cell biology, and the etiology of disease. With regard to the latter, it provides an intelligible bridge between chemistry and biology, and hence an explanation for the natural origin of life. Finally, developmentalism, being an inherently ecological perspective, is well suited as a paradigm for addressing problems of environmental management and sustainability.