I comment on Walter's remark concerning my posting
>Dear FIS colleagues,
-snip-
>
>I cant see the appropriateness to reinsert the teleological language.
>Moreover, it seems to me that with these reinsertions we could lose, at
>certain degrees, the rational and scientific >enterprise.
>
>Also, indirectly it is given material for the intelligent-design people.
S: Since final causes have been present in variational principles for a
long time without destroying the scientific enterprise, or its usefulness
in technoloical support, I cannot see the point of this comment against
finality.
As for the connection to ID, this ststement of Walter's presupposes that
finality can only be associated to intentionality. This has long been
known to be untrue. To whit: purpose has been generalized to function in
biology, and has been still further been generalized to physical propensity
in the physico-chemical realm. Thus, we have {physical propensity {
function {purpose}}}, or {teleomaty {teleonomy {teleology}}}.
As well, concerning Loet's
>I would go there with Maturana, for example, on the point that living
>systems communicate in terms of >molecules, while molecules, for example,
>communicate in terms of atoms (in a chemical evolution), etc. There >can
>be a lot of information which is meaningless (e.g., noise) and in very
>meaninful configuration there may be >little communication of information
>ongoing.
S: This relates to the Scale Hierarchy, e.g., [organism [cell
[macromolecule]]], as explored in detail in my 1985 book, Evolving
Hierarchical Systems, and some subsequent texts. As I mention in my
comments on Bob's text, information at any scale is meaningless, AS SUCH,
at different scales, but may be detected indirectly inasmuch as these
meanings at other scales were involved in generating boundary conditions
from higher scalar levels and initiating conditions from lower scalar
levels upon the scale in focus.
STAN
>Sincerely,
>
>
>Walter
>
>
>
>
>
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