> Dear PCP'ers:
>
> 1. With regard to the analogical thinking which, for example, suggests
> us that social organisations are the equivalent at the social system
> level of body organs - to which point are these conclusions valid and
> reasonable? To which point are the suggested equivalencies
> true?
These discussion can get sidetracked easily just by our choice of
terminology. I humbly suggest that super-organism/super-brain ideas
are NOT analogies but metaphors.
Here's why:
A true analogical model finds an equivalent FORMAL system to model
different NATURAL systems. There is an encoding of the natural system
into the formal system and then a decoding. In the formal system we
manipulate by implication to try to duplicate causal events in nature.
If the whole thing "commutes" we have a successful model.
In the cases being discussed there are mainly one way codings from
the body and/or organism to larger natural systems. These correspond
to decodings in an analogical model, but there is no encoding.
Furthermore there appears to be confusion between the natural systems
sought to be understood and the formal systems used to model them.
I see little hope for progress in the discussion until this all gets
sorted out.
Best regards,
Don Mikulecky, http://views.vcu.edu/complex