On the Ontology of Biological Entities

Components of the biosphere, dynamic and diverse as they are, can be imagined to assume two rather distinct morphologies. Some present themselves as materially bounded unities, while others lack material boundaries but can appear unified conceptually. In this series of two articles on the ontology (the nature of being or the general features of the object/s of enquiry and also their relationships) of biological phenomena, the development of thought regarding boundedness in biology and the nature of bounded part-whole constructions are discussed. In the first part, I discuss some of the classical developments of biological thought that imagined the biosphere as a collection of material entities that come into being due to functions of components within their material boundaries. I present three instances in early conventional bioscience learning, two of these discussing the biosphere as hierarchical unities and one positing internal mechanisms as being crucial to their material ontology. This pedagogical exercise is intuitive and provides focus to students’ imagination. I take recourse to Robert Frost’s poem “Mending Wall” to guide discussions on the topic:

He is all pine and I am apple orchard.

My apple trees will never get across.

And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.

He only says, “Good fences make good neighbors.”

He will not go behind his father’s saying.

And he likes having thought of it so well.

He says again, “Good fences make good neighbors.”

- An extract from Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall” [1].