Conventional framing
In standard biology and philosophy, individuals are often understood as discrete, bounded entities—organisms or units that can be clearly distinguished from their surroundings and from one another. Individuality is typically associated with physical integrity, genetic identity, or functional independence.
APS reframing
APS reframes individuality as fundamentally processual rather than structural. A biological individual is not defined by its boundaries, components, or static properties, but by the ongoing organisation of processes that sustain its viability.
The term processual individual makes this explicit. It highlights that individuality is:
- Dynamically maintained, not statically given
- Temporally extended, not confined to a momentary state
- Organisationally grounded, not reducible to material composition
What persists is not a fixed entity, but a pattern of constraint-closed, viability-oriented activity that continuously reconstitutes itself.
This perspective applies to biological individuals across scales (e.g. cells, organisms, and integrated collectives), but does not extend to classificatory entities such as taxa.
The concept therefore complements, rather than replaces, the definition of the biological individual. It specifies how individuality must be understood within a process-based ontology, rather than introducing a distinct class of entity.
Key Point
A processual individual is a biological individual understood as a continuously maintained, viability-oriented organisation, whose identity lies in ongoing process rather than fixed structure or boundaries.