Life itself is grander than the sum of its constituent molecules. Any living organism may be regarded as a part of a dissipative process that connects irreversible energy consumption with growth, reproduction, and evolution. Under energy-fuelled, far-from-equilibrium conditions, chemical systems capable of exponential growth can manifest a specific form of stability– dynamic kinetic stability (DKS) – indicating the persistence of self-reproducible entities. This kinetic behavior is associated with thermodynamic conditions far from equilibrium leading to an evolutionary view of the origin of life in which increasing entities have to be associated with the dissipation of free energy. This review aims to reformulate Darwinian theory in physicochemical terms so that it can handle both animate and inanimate systems, thus helping to overcome this theoretical divide. The expanded formulation is based on the principle of dynamic kinetic stability and evidence from the emerging field of systems chemistry. Although the classic Darwinian theory is useful for understanding the origins and evolution of species, it is not meant to primarily build an explicit framework for predicting potential evolution routes. Throughout the last century, the inherently systemic and dynamic nature of the biological systems has been brought to the attention of researchers. During the last decades, “systems” approaches to biology and genome evolution are gaining ever greater significance providing the possibility of a deeper interpretation of the basic concepts of life. Further progress of this approach depends on crossing disciplinary boundaries and complex simulations of biological systems. Evolutionary systems biology (ESB) through the integration of methods from evolutionary biology and systems biology aims to the understanding of the fundamental principles of life as well as the prediction of biological systems evolution.

生命本身比其构成分子的总和伟大。任何生物都可以视为耗散过程的一部分，该耗散过程将不可逆的能量消耗与生长，繁殖和进化联系起来。在能量驱动的，远离平衡的条件下，具有指数增长能力的化学系统可以表现出特定形式的稳定性-动态动力学稳定性（DKS）-表明自我可复制实体的持久性。这种动力学行为与远离平衡的热力学条件有关，从而导致了生命起源的进化论，在生命起源论中，增加的实体必须与自由能的消散相关联。这篇评论的目的是用物理化学术语重新定义达尔文理论，以便它既可以处理有生命的系统，也可以处理无生命的系统，从而有助于克服这一理论分歧。扩展的配方基于动态动力学稳定性原理和来自系统化学新兴领域的证据。尽管经典的达尔文主义理论对于理解物种的起源和进化很有用，但它并不是要主要为预测潜在进化途径建立明确的框架。在整个上个世纪，生物系统固有的系统性和动态性已引起研究人员的注意。在过去的几十年中，生物学和基因组进化的“系统”方法越来越重要，这提供了对生命的基本概念进行更深层解释的可能性。这种方法的进一步进步取决于跨学科界限和生物系统的复杂模拟。进化系统生物学（ESB）通过整合进化生物学和系统生物学的方法，旨在了解生命的基本原理以及预测生物系统进化。