Biological organisation is materially realised in space and time. Spatial relations such as position, configuration, boundary, orientation, and interaction, and temporal relations such as sequence, duration, recurrence, and historical dependence, can therefore be relevant to how living organisation is constituted and maintained.
APS begins biological explanation with viability-oriented organisation. This does not make space and time products of organisation, nor does it treat them as secondary to biological activity. Rather, it means that the spatial and temporal relations relevant to a biological explanation must be identified in relation to the explanandum and the materially realised dependencies that make a difference to it.
A spatial configuration may be constitutive of a biological process, while a temporal relation may be necessary for explaining its maintenance, development, repair, or transformation. Their biological relevance cannot therefore be determined from physical magnitude or duration alone.
This is where Scale enters APS. Scale is the analytic projection concerned with where persistence is organised across spatial and temporal extents. It does not designate a hierarchy of levels, and biological organisation is not assumed to be inherently multiscale. The extent required for an explanation depends on the target: a relatively local spatial or temporal description may sometimes be sufficient, whereas other explananda may require materially realised relations extending across wider spatial or temporal extents.
Accordingly, APS distinguishes the material organisation of biological processes in space and time from the explanatory role of Scale. Spatial and temporal relations may be constitutive of living organisation; Scale identifies the extents across which that organisation must be considered to explain the persistence relevant to a particular target.
This does not conflict with physical accounts of spacetime. It specifies a methodological requirement for biological explanation: the explanatory relevance of spatial and temporal relations must be established from the organisation and dependencies relevant to the biological explanandum rather than inferred from physical extent alone.