> I equate final cause as "being closed to efficient casue"
>
> In organisms,
> material cause = material substance (substrates of chemical reactions)
> origionally from the environment
> efficinet cause = enzymes that convert substrates to products
> formal cause = genome that modulates the efficient cause information
I would like to add that the structures build by enzymes coded for by
DNA are also a part of the formal cause, or rather that they are an
expression of the formal cause that constrain current efficiental
causes.
> final cause is the idea that the system is closed to efficient cause
> (all enzymes are made by other enzymes)
Closed to efficient cause from the outside you mean? I don't
understand this. Final cause as I have understood it is the' goal'
[thuogh this word may not be the best one in English for what I mean]
internalized by evolutionary processes in the past, equivalent to
vicarious selectors by Campbell.
> Unentailed (from within the system) natural laws of physics and chemistry
> provide the explaination for why potential reactions so organized within the
> system take place.
This is also what Pattee
Pattee H P (1977) Dynamic and linguistic modes of com-
plex systems. Int. J. General systeme vol. 3
pp. 259-266.
writes about.
> In biology, there isn't the need for "the extra interpretation
> instruction". Whether a product molecule acts as an enzyme (efficient
> cause) is based on just the laws of physics and chemistry and what the
> molecule IS. Therefor, it is at least conceptually possible for a non-formal
> system to be completely closed to efficient cause (have final cause within the
> system). This is because the "meaning" of the stuff is retained.
> In a formal system (in which meaning has been stripped), you can never
> get efficient cause to close...you always need extra unentailed
> structure (code) to compensate for the stripped meaning.
This is very clear, thanks
Hans-Cees
Theories come and go, the frog stays [F. Jacob]
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