BODY { font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;
}John, list
No-one is denying that 'emergence' is only the beginning of a
complex study. But, as with any situation in the phaneron, what we
observe is, so to speak', 'what we observe' - and we have to
acknowledge its reality as an observation...before we can begin to
explain what-is-going-on.
So- we have to accept that, for example, we observe that a
biological entity will emerge in a certain manner in X-situation, and
emerge differently or not at all in Y-situation. We have to examine
the critical threshold when a population will split into smaller
groups...and so on.
Objective observation is, after all, a primary requirement - and
collating vast observations - without explanation - is hardly a
deprecating endeavour. And I don't see that such observations are
comparable to 'virtus dormitiva' - since no explanation is offered.
Indeed - it is vital to gather such observations - before analysis -
within an abductive method.
The abstract of an article forthcoming in BioSystems, which began
this thread, did indeed suggest several areas to explore regarding
the emergence of life forms. So- I continue to be puzzled by any
suggestion that discussion of the topic is problematic or 'weasel' or
tautological.
Edwina.
On Tue 03/08/21 5:04 PM , "John F. Sowa" s...@bestweb.net sent:
Edwina> All [the word emergence] means in my reference is 'coming
into being'; i.e., becoming a morphology, a form, whether in the mode
of being of 1ns,2ns,3ns.
Yes. That is all it means. Jon A called it a 'weasel word' as a
sign of deprecation because it names a phenomenon without explaining
it. In a sense, he was making the same criticism that Moliere made
about the term 'dormitive virtue'.
But Peirce made the point that such names, which he called
hypostatic abstractions, are useful in recognizing that there is
something that is worth studying and analyzing.
In summary, emergence is worth analyzing, but it's important to
remember that it's only the beginning of a complex study.
John
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