Representing life: A natural philosophical project.

We address multi-levelled organization as a vital aspect of any characterization of Nature, and propose that a model-hierarchical description is fitting for a Natural Philosophical point of view. An important aspect is that the different organizational levels in a model hierarchy are partially isolated and autonomous, partially communicating across the entire scale assembly. Of particular interest are the complex interfaces between levels, and the manner in which these may be transited by a generic form of quantum error correction. An entire hierarchy decomposes into two partial hierarchies, one of the model levels, one of the complex interfaces. These are both approximately modelled, both internally and externally, as a duality of hyperscales, which ultimately integrate to give a singular metascalar identity: the duality we propose is not that of Descartes, but is a natural outcome of multi-levelled modelling. We note that a Natural Philosophical view of Nature must include a sense of meaning, related to Aristotle's fourth cause, and that this makes a clear difference from conventional Scientific practice. Life can be well represented by this hierarchical snapshot of its structure, although a more comprehensive view must invoke the characteristics of living, and not just life per se.