Biological Evolution as a Process Viewed Internally

Abstract

Derived from epistemological fundamentals, a new concept of process is developed and applied to biological evolution. The new conception is based on a disctinction between external and internal views of processes. Dynamical equations are associated with the external view, whereas the observation of processes is shown to require an internal approach. Conventional models of dynamics are found to show properties (such as time-independence) that cannot be grounded for an important class of systems viewed internally. The processes that require a new approach are argued to include evolutionary phenomena and Whiteheadian instances of change. Problems of motion such as Zeno's paradoxes are recognized as issues of externally represented static systems versus internally represented changing systems. The basic notions of an ontology for internal processes of a system are developed. Evolutionary models are discussed in the light of these concepts, and a new simulation framework, based on internally viewed processes that can alter themselves, is presented.