Artificial Life and the Philosophy of Science

What is the ontological status of Artificial Life systems? This question admits two interpretations. The first asks whether and to what degree Artificial Life systems could potentially be considered ‘alive ’ in the sense that we take naturally oc-curing biological systems to be. The second has to do with what sort of role Artificial Life systems occupy in scientific inquiry. In this paper, we investigate both facets of the ques-tion, and explore the philosophical and practical implications of possible answers for scientific practice