DNA as Crystallized Knowledge: A Process-Ontological Reinterpretation

Contemporary biology remains deeply shaped by an implicit atomistic ontology in which DNA is treated as the primary source of biological causation, organization, and meaning. Although empirically productive, this framework rests on metaphysical assumptions that are rarely made explicit or critically examined. Drawing on Alfred North Whitehead’s process philosophy, this paper proposes an ontological redefinition of DNA. I argue that DNA is neither primary information nor an instructive code, but the material sedimentation of historically successful processes of biological becoming. When similar concrescent pathways are repeatedly realized across time, they stabilize and precipitate into matter as DNA. In this sense, DNA functions as crystallized knowledge—habitus rather than instruction. Reframing DNA in this way does not constitute an incremental theoretical adjustment but calls for a paradigmatic reorientation in biological ontology, shifting explanation from static entities to historically conditioned processes. This perspective aligns with developmental systems theory and challenges reductionist gene-centered views, offering a processual foundation for understanding biological stability, plasticity, and innovation.