The Agency–Process–Scale (APS) framework does not introduce an arbitrary set of categories. It identifies the minimal explanatory structure required to account for viability-oriented, constraint-closed organisation.
Agency, process, and scale are not convenient descriptors but necessary dimensions of biological explanation. Without agency, biological normativity disappears and no distinction can be made between persistence and failure. Without process, organisation becomes static and cannot account for ongoing maintenance. Without scale, coordination across spatial and temporal domains cannot be explained.
Any framework that adequately explains living systems must therefore include these dimensions, even if under different terminology.
Key Point. APS is not one framework among many—it makes explicit the conditions required for biological explanation to remain coherent.