ABSTRACT
One of the basic requirements of a living organism, be it a humble bacterium or the human body, is that the internal environment be maintained in a near-constant chemical state in the face of ever-changing external conditions. By describing a living system as mechanical or machine-like one is actually admitting that life cannot be explained in terms of the impersonal laws of physics and chemistry. Biologists pursuing the aim of explaining living functions in terms of machines have achieved outstanding success. The biochemist Rupert Sheldrake draws attention to this widespread misconception about what is implied in the use of the term 'machine' when applied to the living world. Biological organisms are complex mechanisms that have evolved through random genetic mutations and natural selection. There is little doubt that the reductionist belief system has had an enormous influence on the conceptual mind-set of many of those active in the biological sciences.
