ABSTRACT
One of the fundamental issues in biology is whether organismic morphology can be understood as the result of a generative process with generic properties. If so, then biological form is intelligible in dynamical terms, and biology is the realm of expression of a characteristic type of order, making it a rational science. This contrasts with the dominant view that biology is an historical science, species being indviduals, not types, that result exclusively from the contingencies of survival. This chapter explores these issues in relation to a model of morphogenesis of a particular species, which suggests that the forms generated may be dynamic attractors in morphogenetic space, so that biological forms may be natural kinds.
