Why and How to Use Process Philosophy in Everyday Ecology and Biology?

Abstract

Recent studies in biology and ecology show striking convergences with process philosophy (PP). Biologists today are debating the real nature of evolution and of life itself, which is increasingly considered as a set of interrelated processes rather than a set of tangible species and material lineages. This perspective of focusing on changes can also be found with ecologists and environmental ethicists, whose studies feed into as well as draw on PP principles. Despite such connections, the PP-based approach has not yet been adopted in ecology or biology, and appears to be rarely used in practice. We face a problem: How to transform PP from an epistemological pillar into a useful ontological pillar in ecology and further on in biology? To answer, we developed here simple qualitative, discrete-event ecosystem models based on a process network representation instead of on a more tangible interaction network. Comparing rigorous models developed with a traditional materialist view, like those commonly used in ecology, with models built here on a PP-based view, provides a first illustration of the way PP could be concretely applied in and could benefit to ecology and biology, by directly handling processes. Hence, putting PP into practice suggests handling processes first, and then only deducing objects lasting in time and composing the system under study. We also show with examples that following PP principles may sometimes lead to different conclusions, despite handling the same material components of the system under study. Additionally, PP sheds new light on the age-old pattern/process debate and on some others in biology and ecology.