This paper evaluates Stuart Kauffman’s autocatalytic set theory as a candidate mechanism for the emergence of organized biological systems. The analysis examines whether autocatalytic networks satisfy the structural conditions required for genuine emergence within the Dynamic Harmony framework. The paper applies the Phase Non-Substitutability Test introduced in Paper 0 and the architectural boundary criterion developed in Paper 0B to determine whether autocatalytic closure produces a transformation in system architecture or whether it remains a configurational rearrangement within an existing state space. The results clarify the relationship between catalytic closure and the structural requirements for Type-2 emergence. This paper forms part of the Dynamic Harmony Structural Stress-Test Series, a research program that evaluates major theories of emergence across physics, biology, and complex systems through adversarial structural analysis.
James Scott (2026) studied this question.