RE: [PEN-L:31300] "Western Rationality" ----- Original Message ----- From: Devine, James
Lewontin and Levins (in their DIALECTICAL BIOLOGIST) argue against the Enlightenment version of science. They see the world as heterogeneous, involving a large number of parts that are interconnected as part of a whole that feeds back to affect the character of the parts, and as dynamic. The Enlightenment "science" is akin to dissection: in this view, we can only "understand" an organism by cutting it up into bits -- killing it. This destroys the dynamism and the holism. Enlightenment "science" also attempts to get rid of real-world heterogeneity, escaping into abstraction. ================= By the same token, anti-reductionism aside, the aggregation-holism issue in ecology and physiology makes the problem of 'the aggregate production function' look like kid stuff.......Where/when to 'draw' those damn boundaries! Ian
