Needless to say, I agree with that anti-reductionist take too, Steve. Platt still seems to be holding out for simple (mechanistic, deterministic) cause & effect explanations **between** layers. In fact he is quite explicit about it. But that is just wishful thinking. There are none supported by ANY actual experience or theory.
Regards Ian On Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 4:40 PM, Steven Peterson <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Platt, > > >> Emergentism, whether British or Hungarian, suffers from a fatal flaw. It >> is entirely bereft of scientific explanation because it fails to identify >> deterministic causes or "mechanisms" for the phenomenon in question. >> To say that this or that property "emerges" is to say nothing more than >> from A comes B. It is a description, not an explanation. Or, if posited as >> an explanation it amounts to "Oops." > > I agree that "emergence" does not explain evolution with mechanisms or > deterministic causes, but neither does the MOQ. The idea of emergence > is basically anti-reductionism. It says, stop insisting that a > deterministic mechanism on a lower level must explain everything worth > knowing on a higher level. It says advances in physics will never make > biological science obsolete. The MOQ agrees. > > Best, > Steve > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ > Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
