ON EPISTEMOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF ARTIFICIAL LIFE
The author considers the epistemological foundations and methodology of artificial life (AL). Analysis is focused on imitational (cybernetics, artificial intelligence) and constructionist (2nd order cybernetics, Von Neiman`s automata) approaches to interpretations of AL. The author presents examples of AL models such as «Echo» (Holland) and «Bugs» (Bedau, Packard) in the context of the complex adaptive systems theory. Issues for future epistemological and philosophical research are formulated (synthetic biology and its constructionist limitations, the Preorazhensky syndrome).