Quote of the Week
(October 14, 2024)

When a cell enters into mitosis, just about every detail of its physiology and chemistry takes on an altered meaning in light of the changing narrative context. Everything is now heading toward a different outcome. Molecules that had been participating in one set of interactions (and could easily still do so in purely physical terms) now enter into very different intermolecular relations. Similarly with a cell experiencing heat shock, oxygen deprivation or other stress, a cell coming into contact with new neighbors, or a cell proceeding along a path of embryonic differentiation.

Certainly we can still identify unambiguous causes in the organism. It is always possible to narrow the conditions of our experiments so severely that a consistent “causal arrow” for a particular interaction emerges under those conditions. But the whole point of life’s adaptability is to seek (or help create) altered conditions according to present needs and interests. This is why there can be no fixed syntax, no mechanical constancy of relations among the parts. The organism is forever abandoning the coordinating principles of its old context in favor of a new and ever-changing meaning. Its story is always evolving.

The nature of causation in biology differs from the problem of causation in the physical sciences. Organisms manifest a fluid, integral, harmonizing sort of causation that is more like a play of the multi-dimensional reasons for things than a set of one-dimensional mechanical interactions. It is more like the rich interplay of meaning in an unfolding poem than a rigid syntax or logic.

(from Chapter 8, “A Mess of Causes”, in Organisms and Their Evolution — Agency and Meaning in the Drama of Life)

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