ABSTRACT
It is hardly an understatement to say that nothing in the history of biological research has appeared and been found acceptable as a formulation of theoretical biology. A variety of disciplines have evolved in recent times contending for this title. Included among these are cybernetics, information theory, theory of automata, systems analysis, mathematical models, analyses based on computer technology and adaptations of physical models. Current philosophic discussion on a possible formulation of theoretical biology is endless but with little consensus. A large school of thought works on the assumption that biology is in a state similar to that of the early days of physics and that, given time, a theory will develop naturally, as it did in physics. The analogy is not good, since physics has always had more substantial relative strength of theory to empirical content than biology ever had. There is a feeling among some that biology is inherently incapable of yielding any theory; that it is the field of the unique and unpredictable; that its uniformities exist only in its physical aspects.
