by Emanuele Serrelli
Serrelli E (2011). Biologia evoluzionistica: processi e pattern. Riflessioni Sistemiche 5 (Nov 2011), "I processi nell'approccio sistemico", pp. 138-153 (online on http://www.aiems.eu).
This reflection argues that patterns, i.e., iterations, recurrencies, are our way of accessing evolutionary processes.... more
This reflection argues that patterns, i.e., iterations, recurrencies, are our way of accessing evolutionary processes. I also address the meaning of “pattern”, which has many interpretations. Many evolutionary biologists like to compare themselves to detectives. Such a parallel allows seeing how the pattern concept performs in describing distinct knowledge contexts. Evolutionists are often recommended to clearly distinguish between patterns and processes, perhaps in relation to a hypothesized contrast between the static character of patterns and the dynamic nature of processes. Simple examples of biological patterns, however, suggest that patterns are scheme of relations that always have a diachronic dimension entangled with the synchronic. So, patterns are not mere static traces of processes: recurrent processual forms ARE patterns, they are what we have when we affirm we know the processes. The reconstruction of unique historical events, in spite of appearance, is not an exception: we know what happened when it conforms or (equally importantly) diverges from expected regularities. Expectations are fundamental in the knowing mechanisms, and are constantly formed in various ways. Patterns, like processes, stratify at different spatiotemporal scales and in distinct webs of relations. In addition, they vary with respect to generality. Synchronic extensions of patterns are, actually, crucial for our possibility to access processes, but they are, precisely, inextricable from the temporal dimension.
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