Living systems: Cross-level hypotheses

The preceding article considered salient characteristics of the subsystem and system-wide processes which generally occur at all levels of living systems. Using the concepts developed in that article, the present exposition states 165 hypotheses that may be applicable to two or more levels of living systems. Some are original with the author. Some have previously been proposed by other writers, usually as applying to systems at one level only, and often to only one type of system. These cross-level hypotheses, if supported by empirical evidence, can be very powerful in generating general theory of living systems, so long as differences among the various levels, types, and individual cases are taken into account. The numbered divisions of this paper deal with the same topics as do similarly numbered sections in the preceding article. Certain sections are omitted here because no material relevant to their topics was found.