Donald C. Mickulecky
Donald C. Mikulecky | |
|---|---|
| Alma mater | Illinois Institute of Technology; University of Chicago |
| Known for | Relational systems theory and network thermodynamics; critique of reductionism |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physiology, Complexity science, Theoretical biology |
| Institutions | Virginia Commonwealth University |
Donald C. Mikulecky (listed by de Climont as "Donald C. Mickulecky") is a physiologist and complexity theorist, Professor Emeritus of Physiology and Senior Fellow of the Center for the Study of Biological Complexity at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is listed in The Worldwide List of Dissident Scientists.
Work
Mikulecky is known for developing and promoting a relational, anti-reductionist approach to living systems, drawing heavily on the relational biology of Robert Rosen. He argues that complex systems have "the property... manifest in the inability of any one formalism being adequate to capture all its properties," and that organisms therefore cannot be fully reduced to machine-like descriptions. His technical work on network thermodynamics combines classical and non-equilibrium thermodynamics with network theory as a framework for complex systems, which he presents as a transition toward relational systems theory.
He has written critically about the interpretation of chaos and "new science," and about the differences between organisms and machines, positions that place him among critics of mainstream reductionist methodology in biology and the physical sciences.