Class Antagonism and Its Metaphysical Implications

Biological evolution expresses a teleological tendency toward greater and greater levels of freedom and complexity. From the simple elements from which the first complex molecules of RNA were formed, and from the first bacteria to sexual reproduction in multicellular organisms, and from fish to amphibians, to reptiles and birds, and finally to mammals, culminating in our own human awareness, there is a direction to our evolution that seems to contradict the material world around us. This is a direction toward self-determination and intricacy.

Quantum physicist and professor, Amit Goswami, tells us that “The physical arrow of time is an arrow of entropy.”[i] He is referring to the fact that material objects, as time goes on, will fall apart, break, decay, and there is nothing that can be done to stop it. Entropy means diverging tendency, and time is attributed to having a relationship to this tendency; as time moves forward, entropy (chaos, destruction, dissipation) increases. This is a well-established law of science, the second law of thermodynamics. Amit Goswami goes on, however, and says,

Biology also gives us an empirical arrow of time. Biological organisms evolve toward an increasing complexity. But biological complexity consists of much order and thus is the opposite of entropy, which is disorder. So the two arrows are not compatible.[ii]

The order of life is plain to understand. Humanity cannot create life from inorganic material. It simply cannot be done. Louis Pasteur demonstrated in the mid-19th century that this was so, when he proved that life does not arise in sterile environments. Pasteur’s process, known today as pasteurization, is still practiced in the food industry, and the law of biogenesis—that life only comes from life— still remains rather unchallenged. If we want to create life today, we must do so through breeding or cloning.

Because of its basis in carbon, organic matter can oftentimes be highly complex—much more so than inorganic matter—, forming intricate polymers, or macromolecules, which are constructed in the process of metabolism. When life eats, it constructs more complex molecules from its food source. They are, however, deconstructed when life breaks down, dies, and decays. Living is the process of construction, and dying is the act of destruction. The dying and dead are governed by the law of entropy, but the young and living are governed by a law known as syntropy. Syntropy, being the opposite of entropy, means converging tendency rather than a diverging one. This converging tendency is one towards increasing order and complexity, the opposite of entropy’s chaos and destruction. I highly suggest the work of Ulisse Di Corpo and Antonella Vannini for further understanding syntropy.

Characteristics of syntropy are exhibited by all life, by the...