Systems Biology in the Broad Sense

“Although, as said, I am skeptical about the merits of backward-looking evolutionary theories for systems biology, I would like to adjust and fine-tune my position in this respect, because what is needed in my opinion is not so much the common backward-looking evolutionary theories but instead a forward-looking evolutionary approach, in the way explicated by the philosopher Paul Griffiths (Griffiths PE. Acta Biotheor 57:11–32, 2009). Moreover, I think that such a theoretical predictive approach of evolutionary theory can be adequately complemented and extended by the perspectives of the new discipline of experimental microbial evolution. Both forward-looking evolutionary theories and experimental microbial evolution fit well into systems biology sensu lato.”