The Process Dynamics of Normative Function

The central plank of our account is a theory of autonomous (or "self governed") systems that are composed of webs of interdependent processes whose collective activity is self-generating. In other words, au tonomous systems possess a process organization that, in interaction with the environment, performs work to guide energy into the processes of the system itself. A paradigm autonomous system is a living cell, which trans forms energy and materials from the environment through metabolic pathways into the forms of chemical energy and organic molecules required by the processes that sustain the cell. Examples of the processes by which cells help generate the conditions under which they survive include enzymatic catalysis, membrane regulation of energy and material flows in and out of the cell, and chemotaxic amoebic motion to find a food