[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# Living things as hierarchically organized structures

## Details

**Authors** Zylstra, Uko

**Year** 1992

**Publisher** Synthese, vol. 91, pp. 111–133

**Kind of work** article

**Discipline** Philosophy

**Secondary disciplines** Biology

**Applied** false

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00484972) 
10.1007/bf00484972

## In authors' words

### What they set out to do (purpose)

To clarify the conflicting senses of 'hierarchy' in biology and to examine the part-whole problem that arises when a whole is said to have authority over its parts.

### How they did it (methods)

Conceptual analysis, tested on proposed hierarchies of replicators and interactors and on Dooyeweerd's theory of enkapsis.

### What they found (results)

The author distinguishes control hierarchies, which involve authority relationships between levels, from classification hierarchies, which do not. If a whole has authority over its parts, the question arises whether the parts have independent existence. Dooyeweerd's theory of enkapsis is presented as a way to separate part-whole relationships from enkaptic ones.

## Commentary

### In short

The paper separates two meanings of 'hierarchy' in biology, control and classification, and asks what the authority of a whole over its parts implies for the parts' independence.

### Response

The paper turns on a distinction between two kinds of hierarchy and on the part-whole question, with authority between levels as the relationship at issue. The fit is conceptual rather than empirical, and the paper offers no evidence on perspectives. The abstract and publisher page were the only sources read.

**Patterns it shows** D, S, R

**Added** 2026-10-28

**How to cite this** Zylstra, Uko (1992). Living things as hierarchically organized structures. Synthese, vol. 91, pp. 111–133.