What kinds of empirical correlates for a general theory of living organization? Revisiting the (M, R)-system and its ‘replication’

Abstract

Robert Rosen proposed in the late 1950s the metabolism-repair or the (M, R)-system as a general model of living organization, or any “autonomous life form.” Since then, the model has persisted as a recurring subject of interest in certain areas of theoretical biology; however, beyond those specific circles, its influence on biological thought has remained minor. One likely reason for this is the difficulty of interpreting the conceptual insights of the model in concrete terms, which Rosen himself identified as the basically unresolved “realization problem.” In more recent literature, attempts to do so have focused relatively strictly on the cellular or even biochemical context, and suggested changes to the model's basic nomenclature: most notably, the technical term ‘replication’ appearing in the model has been interpreted as something quite unrelated to replication in the usual biological meaning of the term. The aim of the present paper is to argue, firstly, that this is likely to be a deviation from Rosen's original intentions, and secondly, that quite apart from those intentions, there is a practical way of applying the (M, R)-system for organizing standard empirical knowledge about any living organism, multicellulars included, and furthermore in such a way that formal ‘replication’ directly relates to biological replication. Without supposing this new practical scheme to be perfect or beyond further refinement, it is shown to exemplify an analytical point of view that is not covered by more familiar biological theories.