 The philosophical import of biological complexity is underscored by recent trends in systems biology (Boogerd et al. 2007, Green 2015, 2017, Green et al. 2015, Mazzocchi 2012, Noble 2006, O’Malley and Soyer 2012). In addition to the mathematical modeling of system-wide behavior, systems biology has a wealth of data about various molecular components of cells stemming from functional genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics methods. Downward looking strategies in systems biology attempt to analyze systemic dynamics into different components, whereas upward looking strategies aim to synthesize how the quantitative interactions among individual molecules result in higher-level behavior (Green et al. 2017, Krohs and Callebaut 2007). Despite the focus on molecular components and their interactions, non-reductionist themes tied to complexity are motivated by non-linear interactions and feedback loops that generate emergent behaviors, distributed control, and system robustness (Brigandt 2015, Bruggeman et al. 2002, Westerhoff and Kell 2007).