Concepts of optimality and efficiency in biology and medicine from the viewpoint of philosophy of science.
If everything happens strictly according to the natural laws, which meet extremum principles, in what way can the possibility for life be characterised, so that the optimization processes of evolution can take place? Is it legitimate to "enlarge" the natural laws by certain laws of conservation? The question then arises of which are the new conservation quantities that are introduced by life itself? The concept of genidentity, which must not be confused with the biological concept of genes, is introduced and used to characterise the interface between animate and inanimate systems by the principle of conservation of genidentity. It thus becomes clear that animate systems can differ in the way and in how reliably they achieve their goal of self-preservation. The abundance of possibilities to be or not to be able to reach this goal offers the necessary scope in which the notion of a postulated assumed optimization in the theory of evolution is conceivable. The conservation principle of genidentical systems creates the possibility of evolutionary optimization by ranking these systems. An optimal lifespan of an individual genidentical system refers to the conservation principle of genidentical systems on a second supra-individual level (species). The optimization of the growth of a species needs the conservation of a genidentical system on a third level (symbiotic systems). The ranking of genidentical systems onto ever higher levels--so that the higher conservation principles always impose restrictions on the ones below--would come to an end when the minimization of raw materials and energy consumption limits all possible and available resources. Since the spectrum extending between opposite goals lies within the range of possible means of optimization, supposedly evolutionary goals of optimization are always attributed to nature by the observer.
Deppert
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Philosophisches Seminar, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, FRG.
D005075:Biological Evolution; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D005826:Genetics, Medical; D006801:Humans; D010686:Philosophy, Medical