Rosen introduced systems closed to efficient cause in the late 50's, early
60's as metabolism/repair systems (mr). Since then he has centered his definiti
on of organsim around them and Casti has also used them to define a peculiar
set of manufacturing processes.
The (mr) system is a series of mappings under category theory. They
involve sets of things like metabolites, cell structures, etc. Metabolism
is involved with processing things from outside the organism, while
repair is that business we often see as "turnover" in biology.
Finally, the is a process or mapping called "replication" which is tightly
related to repair. Rosen shows that these peculiar relationships are
ALL part of the ability of the organism to be closed under efficient cause,
final cause coming in in the relationship of reproduction to repair as a
separate mapping. I state these things because,as I understand it, the
closure under efficient cause is something which involves the holist nature of
these, not any one of them. True, final cause is necessary, but it clearly is
not sufficient. Once again, we deal with mappings on mappings and sets of sets
here, so simple reductionist interpretations will miss the point.
I hope this helps.
Best wishes,
Don Mikulecky