The seminar met this afternoon, now eight in number.
I would like to think that I were the sort of person who could summarize what
we accomplished, but alas, I am not, so let me share what was accomplished for
me. I hope others in the group will correct me, particularly any who are not
in Santa FE but who have joined us in our reading from afar.
McLaughlin asserts that B.E. was a possible scientific position in the 19
century but came to an end because quantum mechanics, quantum chemistry, etc.,
demonstrated that there were no configurational forces. When we explain the
properties of H20 on the basis of the properties of the molecules, electrons
etc. that make it up we need invoke no new FORCES that arise from the
configuration of the particles. Elementary Newtonian forces are all we need.
But I ended up wondering if all of this was fair to the Emergentists. After
all, Mill spoke not of the composition of forces but of the composition of
causes. Presumably all forces are in some sense causes, but nobody has yet
asserted that all causes are forces. Returning to my example of the triangle
made of hinges and one-by-two's, to explain the strength of the triangle (by
comparison with the relative weakness of the parallelogram), we need not appeal
to any special forces, no "triangular stubbornness" or "elan triangulaire".
On the other hand, if you would make a structure with hinges and one-by-twos
that is strong, you better get at least one triangle into it. In that sense,
the triangular configuration of the wood pieces is a necessary condition of the
structural rigidity (and perhaps a sufficient one as well?) and hence a CAUSE
of the rigidity., in any sense that I understand cause. In short, McLaughlin
does not deny the existence of configurational CAUSES and such causes are all
that is needed for a robust emergentism.
Again, I long for comments from others who have read this article.
Nick
Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology,
Clark University ([email protected])
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
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