One of Kauffman's main intentions is to show how life is best viewed as an emergent property that requires no appeal to supernatural divinity. In this process some interesting arguments come up:
- Some processes have multiple platforms from which they can be explained. Forward predictive power determines the level from which things are best explained. Just because you can explain everything back to the level of physics doesn't mean that is the level from which things are always best understood. This depends on the level where predictions start functioning.
- Life begins to emerge when endergonic cycles are coupled with exergonic cycles. This increase the number of reactions possible. Agency emerges as boundary conditions are naturally selected to favor certain combination of reactions over others. For instance, a bacteria's path along a glucose gradient emerges as part of the process of maintaining a boundary condition with respect to food.