Organisms and Minds as Dynamic Forms

This essay is an inquiry into the problem of biological form, which unites different aspects of the subject, from evolution to cognition, within a common perspective. Historical approaches to this problem have employed various dualisms to separate different parts of the processes that generate form, whether in organismic development, evolution or cognition, and to locate different causes and characteristics in these parts, to one of which is usually ascribed a distinct essence, which is regarded as the generator of distinctive form. A number of these dualisms are examined, starting with that of Descartes, out of which emerges an alternative approach to the problem.