Containment and reciprocity in biological systems: a putative psychophysical organising principle

The stuff of life, the living substance that is common to all biological organisms, is the aqueous society of biochemical activity ongoing in every cell in every living body. The basic biochemical ‘reactions’ of life are largely similar with variations of a theme played out in different cells living in different environment, e.g. the core biochemical metabolic processes of all life likely stem from an ancient, early-earth ancestor (Smith & Morowitz, 2004). However, even more common to life than shared biochemistry are the basic structural properties of all cells and all living organisms into complexes of compartmentalised units. In this paper, I will argue there are common feelings driving the generation of these ubiquitous structures in nature and that these feelings may constitute one of several
primary forms of feeling in living systems.