Epistemology is imprtant in the study of life because life is
creative, it always crosses the boundary of what it "knows".
Each new species is an invention of a new way of self-reproduction.
I agree that it is possible to view the whole biosphere as a
self-reproducing system. But I would argue that it is also
possible to define self-reproduction at lower levels of the
hierarchy. Self-reproduction is always CONDITIONAL, i.e.,
it occurs if certain conditions are met. But these conditions
are never eternal, they change via cosmological and
biological evolution. But in a limited lime-scale, there is
self-reproduction at various levels: molecules, cells, organisms,
and species; not just at the biosphere level, as you claim.
-Alexei
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Alexei Sharov Research Scientist
Dept. of Entomology, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061
Tel. (540) 231-7316; FAX (540) 231-9131; e-mail sharov@vt.edu
Home page: http://www.gypsymoth.ento.vt.edu/~sharov/alexei.html