The conception of reductionism in biology science

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Elementary objects are irreducible components of reality, which is under study. As primary ideas of theories, they establish the simplest structural connections and in this sense they are elementary. Being a part of a system they play an essential role in understanding the relationship of integrity and that of the system. They do not only contribute to an understanding of the structural levels of matter and its nature, but they also have the function of worldview. The methodology of their studying is responsible for developing knowledge. Elementary objects of the theory, as carriers of certain connections and relationships, are the building blocks of structural reality, which show the quality of the system and the integrity of its structure. This article reveals methodological significance of elementary character, its procedural context in the development of scientific knowledge.

Effective theorization of modern biological knowledge includes a search of its original elementary object, as a specific idealization. Firmly established basic concepts are the evidence of the development of the theory and they determine its content. At the same time, it should be noted that the elementary unit in the structural aspect is not equal to expandability.

Isolation of elementary entities characterizes the theoretical level of knowledge of biological objects. An elementary object is a cell, the base of theoretical knowledge in biology. “... an elementary evolutionary phenomenon can be assumed a long and vectorized change of genotypic composition of the population. It is clear that the beginning and the course of the evolutionary process is impossible without such genotypic changes in the population, although the elementary evolutionary phenomenon in its sense is not an evolutionary process”[16, p. 316]. Let us mention that the unit of population change is defined according to the evolutionary process.

The notion of biological organization will lead us to the idea that the cell is a substance, but it is the process, a continuous chain of complex correlated with each other events. It is clear that at this level of knowledge, all discrete representations are not important, where procedural view of reality is particularly important. One of the characteristics of the living is a hierarchy of structures and functional control. In this case, it is to the functional monitoring belongs the particular importance.

It is the interaction between the upper and lower members of the hierarchy, which finds its expression in the existence and function of the feedback, is the typical hallmark of biological hierarchies. It gives them their main, specific difference - the implementation of regulatory effects [1; 5; 8; 11; 16]. In hierarchical systems of the inanimate world, this feature is much less pronounced. It is one of the characteristical differences between the nonliving world and the living. elementary methodological scientific

In the study of complex organized systems, knowledge of the functional relationship of the elements is not always parallel to the knowledge of their structure. The center of gravity of the study moves from the morphological aspects to the functional and backward. The objects of research are already in a new way - in the process, organization, and with morphological and functional content. As soon as the knowledge of elementary objects includes representation of multiple connections, the essence of it is deeply and comprehensively enriched. In a certain sense, the union of the structure and function (spatial and temporal aspects) takes place here. The elementary object cannot be represented by the help of “the language of static objects” or just “the language of events”. Their synthesis is necessary. Modern science is moving away from the traditional view of the basic unit. It tries not only to find adequate forms of synthesis but also integrates structural and functional aspects of complex systems. However, this search has not led to any more or less formed concept yet. This fact makes the problem of elementary object particularly urgent in its methodological aspect. The concepts of elementary object in modern science appear in front of investigators as theoretical constructs that are based on certain principles of natural science. We have already seen that basic concepts include such very different terms as “material point” in classical mechanics, the concept of “the state of physical systems”, the elementary act of interaction, “elementary (point) event”, the gene as the unit of heredity etc. These concepts are like “generating elements” in the relevant theoretical knowledge systems. And this is their primary function.

The problem of elementary character relates to the number of classical problems of modern science and philosophy. Elementary objects of theoretical knowledge systems are the original images of their deep level, which make up the basics of cognitive activity in science. Currently the unquenchable interest in this problem is determined, above all, it attracted scientists by its fundamental nature, cognitive features and value of the concept for biology, modern methodology and philosophical understanding of reality as a whole.

Elementary representations in theories contribute to an understanding of the structural levels of matter and its nature. They also have the function of worldview and determine the methodology of the research of developing knowledge. In modern literature, there are basically three points of view on this issue:

1. Metaphysical - elementary objects of theories are similar to atoms of Democritus, the first building blocks of the universe, and the laws of the theory are eternal.

2. Positivistic - elementary objects of theories are considered in terms of ease of constructing a theory.

3. Dialectical concept - basic concepts of the theory, the levels of scientific study of matter. Each level is characterized by its own laws, completely different from the previous ones. It is a genuine dialectical position in scientific research based and relied on a hierarchical structure of material reality and dialectical conception of nature. It acts as an effective methodology which sees the world as an evolving process. Undoubtedly, the development of biological knowledge and its experimental techniques make significant changes in their ideas about the development of the simplest elements of systems. The point of view of scientists, who hold only a certain form of elementary character, once and for all, is metaphysical. However, the dialectical point of view about the elementary and indivisible character characterizes the difference in levels of biological reality.

“Along with the idea of elements, the idea of any system includes the idea of the structure. Structure is a set of stable relationships and connections between the elements. This definition includes the general organization of the elements, their spatial arrangement, the connection between the stages of development etc. In terms of importance to the system, connections of elements (even the resistant ones) are not the same: some are unimportant, others are significant and natural. Structure, first of all, is a logical connection of elements” [3, p. 80].In any structural significance of natural reality, a special place belongs to its elementary objects, as it is impossible to build out knowledge concerning any systems and relationships. It is elementary objects, carriers of some of connections and relationships are the building blocks of structural reality. Elementary objects show the quality of the system and the integrity of its structure. There are no absolute structures and absolutely elementary objects. Evolving system is represented as a unity of elements and structure. For us it is important to note that material objects, properties and relations are interrelated and inseparable in reality itself [12]. Anyway, objects of material reality exist in connections and relations.

There is every reason to ensure the significance in relationship between the system and the elements, and at the same time and relativization of relationships between elements and the system. Said was intended to clarify that the theories of elementary objects do not exist independently, but accumulate a qualitative features of the system being studied. An elementary object acts as a component of the system, shows the limit of its relative divisibility. However, the relatively low level of organization of matters or elementary objects of the system, acts in relation to the system with other features, cuts its metaphysical character and exhibits its focus on the development in the interests of integrity of the system.

However, in biological systems not elementary notions of themselves play important roles, but their value. The world of living matter is dialectical, full of potentialities and reality. Previous conception of elementary character and indivisibility, as mechanical objects in the development of our common understanding of structural organization of the matter in living systems, has become insufficient nowadays. In this case, the way from “the world of things and objects” to “the world of events” and “the world of potentials” occurred according to the change and the generalization of our concepts of space and time. Elementary character acts not in the form of physical bodies, “objects”, but in the form of manifestation of physical bodies or indivisible atomic events. Accordingly, the basic concepts are characterized by the acts of becoming and alteration, where spatio-temporal properties are defined by special features and special relations of the material connections in biological reality. The concept of the elementary process, which accumulates a unity of space-time entities, was necessary in order to adequately reflect the continuous ongoing processes and characteristics of material connections and relationships.

The adoption of such point of view means that there is a correspondence between successive theoretical systems of the world image. Thus, the previous picture of the world is presented by the principle of conformity ideological and conceptual premise of totally new picture of the world, showing the most significant relationships in the material world.

Development of biological thought shows the usefulness the discrete world of “objects and things” and its continuous aspect of “the world of events” in biological systems. Discreteness and atomism are distinctive features of all knowledge. Understanding the context of its continuing relationship is the result of perfection of our knowledge of reality. It should also be noted that the elementary objects and events are equivalent to each other in various elementary theoretical knowledge systems. The indecomposable concept of “elementary event”shows dialectical character of objects in terms of their formation and development. Indecomposable elementary processes suggest universal relationship in nature.

The concept of atomism in the transition to the field of biology could not remain unchanged. Not surprisingly that it had completely different placein mechanics. The concept of atomism for biological systems is saturated with dialectical views. You can make a solid conclusion that, getting into the area of biological research, we face the chemical and atomic-molecular processes. Thus, we will automatically get into the realm of elementary physical processes. In all biological phenomena 20 different types of amino acids can be represented as single, indivisible structures, which provide building material of life. Further, the “atoms”of coding biological information are four different types of chemical compounds -nucleotides, nitrogenous base -adenine, guanine, cytosineand uracil. For the life and functioning of complex structures, the fundamental role playsnot property of consisting atoms (carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur), but their joint certain properties that are not inherent to them individually. These integrative properties facilitate the acquisition of biological significance in nature.

Radical changes in the fundamental concepts of biological picture of the world, the general method of constructing knowledge in biology, based on reflection in certain primary abstractions - in images of elementary objects. It is elementary representations reflect the basis of the phenomena of a certain level of knowledge and because their fundamental aspect promote logical thinking and knowledge of reality under study form. They can also help to construct and explain various types of theoretical models.

Distinctive statements about the problem indicate the manifold of aspects of the universal connection in nature and the varied forms of reflection of objective reality. This means the expansion of elementary concepts. It is wrong to identify the concept of elementary character as something indivisible and simple. In this regard, mentioned new procedural approach to the elementary reality promotes the understanding of completely different aspects of the universal connection of nature. Thus we can take the following position: the basis of biological processes comprises molecular phenomena obeying statistical and probabilistic laws. The results of biological events are not uniquely defined. A series of such events and interactions lead to statistics, which is determined by the distribution of the probabilities of events. The view of ongoing biological processes is recreated on the basis of these results.

“Statistical and probabilistic ideas proceed from the recognition of a more complex internal structure of the investigated elementary entities... Analysis of the role and the importance of probability distributions in the structure of knowledge are multifaceted. The starting point is, first of all, the fact that the distributions are the main characteristics of the states of the respective systems. Concept of the state is the main characteristic of the system of the objects and systems. Within thescientific theory, it acts as the most complete characteristic of these objects of study. It is the language of the distributions used to give the status of the studied systems and their changes over time” [10, p. 27-28]. Such terms as“dynamic pattern” and “statistical pattern” refer to the various manifestations of the material (in this case biological) phenomena.

Development of basic concepts of elementary character is directly related to the disclosure of the source of the primary structural principles of biological reality and the perception of its evolutionary features. It involves the construction of basic models of bioprocesses, which reveal the style of scientific research and form the basis solutions of a wide range of problems. Due to changes of the objects of researches and emerging new concepts,our common notions of elementary categories in biological knowledge are also changed. The search of elementary objects of the theory is the basis of the program of cognitive activity, and the analysis of its functioning in a theoretical system explains the general trend of the development of knowledge in the field of reality.

The perceptions of elementary character show the features of elementary levels of the hierarchy. As a result of the development of science, changes in the understanding of low-level take place and it is also easy todetect its elementary entities. Initial elementary entity ischaracterized by the presence of the internal dynamics, intrinsic activity of matter and the internal parameters. At the same time the combination of these elementary entities are characterized by certain structural and by the help of ordering they already seem being on high position. “Complexly systems are characterized by the presence of many levels of their organization and determination. Interaction issues are important, especially interactions between levels... The behavior of elementary entities in the systems, the structure of which is characterized by probability distributions, is determined an ambiguous manner” [10, p. 37-41]. This means that the intrinsic activity of matter,which characterizes the system, is important in the biologically developing systems. In this regard, the opinion of an elementary process is based on the consideration not only external but also internal grounds, accounting the behavior and the operation of the system.

Biological objects are very essential as their emergence and existence is based mainly on the structures with the characteristic features of the past and they have all features of the evolutionary development. Our understanding of changes in the structure of the studied systems is inextricably linked with the development of spatial representations. From the view of I. A. Akchurin“It is in it, we “put” some definitely selected elementary “essence”-the elementary objects of the study reality. Through this space we hope to get a“full” description and explanation of all phenomena of this area. In this respect, the properties of elementary objects and those abstract spaces in which we put themare in the relation of dialectical “complementarity” [2, p. 190].

It was mentioned above that the concept of an elementary object accumulates the unity of spatio-temporal entities. “Namely, we seek the broadest possible operational rule of matching elements of abstract spaces with certain elementary events of some areas of material reality. The rule must necessarily be regarded as a universal functor, which connects the category of spaces with the category of elementary events” [2, p. 171-172].

In complex systems (in our case biological) the concept demonstrates its lack of universal elementary and relativity. The properties of integrity and indivisibility into elements and sets are identified in biosystems. Such systems are characterized by the possibility and probability of formation of certain relationships. Biology shows the world as a totality, as an indivisible unit of events and processes. “Relativizationof such terms as “element” and“set” means that eventually the world exists as an indivisible wholeness, not as a multitude (of any elements)” [14, p. 457].“In essence, all that we know in nature - a relationship and all our knowledge come down ultimately to the knowledge of the relationship. Various “elements” = “objects” that we enter into the picture of nature, in the end, are only some of the “nodes” in the relationship and network of relationships”[14, p. 452].

This point of view is not quite correct and is not tenable. If there are only relationships, then they are primary, so it is necessary to explain what it is. In reality we are given relationships (as atomic data itself) and elementary objects which are characterized by a specific entity. Elementary problem in biology gets special significance and a new procedural importance in the framework of modern scientific picture of the world and in general context of modern scientific knowledge. On the one hand, in the scientific picture of the worlda new procedural vision of reality is proved, on the other hand simultaneously criticism of the old paradigm is carried, and this criticism is often a provocative stimulating basis.

Forming a new view of the world, I. Prigogine called the complexity, the temporality and the integrity its characterizing features [7, p. 97]. Self-assembly is defined as a process of entire formulation, whichgot originfrom complex and simultaneously coordinated behavior of the elements that constitute the starting environment [4, p. 214].

According to Prigogine, the idea of instability pressed determinism. This statement is based on the modern idea of the instability as a source of irreversibility and imbalance of systems in the process of formation and evolution. In this regard, these instabilities are increasingly beginning to be interpreted by a “language process”. In this regard, the position of Prigogine more consistently associated with the ideas of instability and imbalance as the basis of occurring developments, formations and evolution. “Ilya Prigogine, considering the self-organization of dissipative structures as an order through fluctuations, namely large-scale fluctuations, randomly selected at the bifurcation point, considered options to further development of the system as the cause of the new order” [4, p. 215].

Within the framework of the mentioned above statements, the original category in the analysis of these phenomena should be considered the uncertainty, in which relation certainty is arisen. “But the possibility of this is based on the objective existence of certainty, regularity and invariance in the objective reality... Ultimately, all our activities are focused on the prediction of events, phenomena and processes, because it ensures a reasonable and effective actions, decisions and behavior in uncertain conditions...”[9, p. 65].

Procedural approach to elementary character is based on the concept of formation and opportunities. It also allows to look differently at the world as unfolding process, as implementations of different options. The concept of the process explains in different way not only the biological reality, but also the whole of natural social phenomena, finds all sorts of limitations in explanations of natural realities.

In terms of methodology, some features in the development of our understanding of the elementary object should be taken into account. Changing in the perceptions of elementary character occurred as a result of changes in our common notions of space and time. An elementary object accumulates the unity of the spatio-temporal essences. The rise of new ideas about elementary character is correlated with the changes in the concepts of integrity, the dialectic of material processes and events, and information content of biological organization. It has been found that the elementary objects, their basic properties and relationships are inseparable in the reality. With regard to biological systems, there elementary character is associated with elements of interactions.

The main features of such opinion about the system also contribute to the understanding of self-regulation and selforganization as a continuous process. No approaches are able to take responsibility for the judgment of the happened biological events. At the same time, the concept of elementary process allows to consider the structure of movement processes, defining movement in biology as a certain system of different events. This breadth and generality of the procedural approach in the questions related to the structure and movement at the elementary level belongs to the category of the process, the philosophical interpretation of which is not less important to understand the biological foundations of vital functions and the development of the world in general.

Thus effective theorization of modern biological knowledge needs to include a search of its original elementary object as a specific idealization. Firmly established basic concepts demonstrate the theory and determine its contents. At the same time, it should be noted that elementary character in the structural aspect is not identical to indecomposability.

Isolation of elementary entities characterizes the theoretical levels of knowledge of biological objects. An elementary object is a cell, the germ of the theory of knowledge in biology “... we can assume thatelementary evolutionary phenomenon is a long and vectorized change of genotype of the population. It is quite clear that without such changes in genotype of the population the beginning and the progress of the evolutionary process is impossible, although elementary evolutionary phenomenon in the newly formulated sense is not an evolutionary process itself' [15, p. 316]. It can also be noted that elementary character of changing in the population is defined relative to the evolutionary process.

Understanding of biological organization will lead us to the idea that the cell is not a substance, but the process, a continuous chain of complex correlated with each other events. Clearly, at this level of knowledge discrete representations do not play significant role, where procedural vision of reality has a particular importance.

One of the characteristics of a living organism is in the hierarchy of structures and functional control. In this case the functional monitoring has the biggest importance. The interaction between higher and lower members of the hierarchy, which finds its expression in the existence and functions of feedback, is the typical hallmark of biological hierarchies. It gives them their chief, the specific difference - supervising the implementation of actions [20; 5; 8; 11]. In hierarchical systems of inanimate world, this feature is less shown than we can see, one of the characteristic differences between the inanimate worlds of the living.

In examining the highly organized systems, the knowledge of their functional connection of their elements is not always parallel to the knowledge of their structure. The center of their gravity moves from the morphological study to their functional aspect and converse. Objects of researches act in a new way now - in the process of organization, which have both morphological and functional content.As soon as the knowledge of the elementary objects includes representation of different connections, the essence of it comprehensively enriched. The union of structure and function occurs (spatial and temporal aspects). Here elementary charactercannot be represented by the “language of static objects" or just “the language of events'. The needs of their synthesis occur. Modern science is moving away from the traditional view of the elementary unit. It seeks to find appropriate forms of synthesis and it also integrates structural and functional aspects of complex systems. However, the search has not yet led to any more or less established concepts.

This fact makes the problem of elementary character particularly urgent in its methodological aspect. Elementary representations in modern science appear before investigators as theoretical constructs that are based on certain principles of natural science. We have already seen that elementary character includes such different in their content concepts as a “material point" in classical mechanics, the concept of “state of a physical system", the elementary act of interaction, “elementary (point) event" gene as a unit of heredity etc. These concepts are like a “generating elements" in the relevant theoretical knowledge systems. And this is their primary function. From a philosophical point of view, the elementary concepts are designed to reflect in a certain way (or represent) the most significant aspects of reality and, at the same time, act as heuristic guidance in finding new patterns. In addition, they have a direct relation to the methodological problems within the theoretical justification of scientific knowledge. So, based on their understanding, it is possible to research certain types of theories, which reflect different in their nature aspects of reality, revealing at the same time both their general and specific features. One of the most important of these principles relating to the mentioned problem is the problem of unequivocal approval and operation of objects in theories.

The procedural approach to the problem of elementary character, which is becoming increasingly important in modern science, is at the stage of its formation, establishment. It would be premature to make any final philosophical judgments and estimates here. However, there is every reason to believe that the synthesis of structural and functional aspects of the “the languages of events" and “the languages of processes", the perspectives of which are more clearly looming on the horizon of modern scientific knowledge, is essential in philosophy. It needs a comprehensive understanding of its philosophical- materialist position.

From a philosophical point of view, the basic concepts are designed to reflect (or represent) in a certain way the most significant aspects of reality and, at the same time, they serve as a heuristic guidelines in the search for new patterns. In addition, they have a direct relationship to methodological problems within the theoretical justification of scientific knowledge. Thus, on the basis of understanding of their certain types, we can explore theories that reflect different natural aspects of reality, revealing at the same time both their general and specific features. One of the most important of these principles related to this problem is the problem of unambiguous approval and operation of objects in theories.

In conclusion, it should be noted that the procedural approach to the problem of an elementary object, which is becoming increasingly important in modem science, is at the stage of its formation, establishment and it would be premature to make here any definitive philosophical judgments and estimates yet. However, there is a reason to believe that the synthesis of structural and functional aspects of the “language of events” and “language processes”, which prospects are more clearly looming on the horizon of modern scientific knowledge, has essential philosophical significance and needs a comprehensive understanding of philosophical and materialist position.

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