Don Mikulecky replies:
> Hello Don
>
> I am approaching PCP from a layperson's perspective and would like a bit
> of illumination on the following.
>
> DON MIKULECKY wrote:
>
>>
>> May I try my own summary:
>> The issue of "what is life" is in Rosen's eyes an issue of Aristotelian
>> causality (or the four "becauses" which answer any question "why?")
>> The question should be rephrased to read "why are living things
>> different from non-living things?" He procedes to answer "BECAUSE
>> they are closed to efficient cause". This seemingly simple statement
>> embodies all the results mentioned above. It embodies the fact that
>> analytic and synthetic models differ in that when they are the same,
>> (in simple systems/mechanisms) there CAN NOT be closure under efficient cause
.
>> It embodies the rebuttal to reductionism in other ways too.
>>
>
> Could you give me a layman's definition of efficient cause (and please
> type sloooowly). I am involved in another discussion on this
> life/nonlife concept and would like to better understand this insight
>
> Regards
> Dan Parker
The Aristotelian "becauses" are the following:
Why does a particular house exist?
1. MATERIAL CAUSE: because of the bricks, wood, glass etc. out which it
is made.
2. EFFICIENT CAUSE: because there were builders to build it
3. FORMAL CAUSE: because its final form was due to a blueprint
4. FINAL CAUSE: because someone needed a place to live
In "simple systems" the first three causes operate in distinct, separate
ways. Final cause is "forbidden" by classical science.
In complex systems final cause plays a crucial role (because complex
systems are anticipatory) and the causes get mixed in ways which they
don't in simple systems.
In machines, or mechanisms, which are simple systems, there is always SOMETHING
which must be "made" from outside the system. There are NOT closed to
efficient cause.
In organisms, the "builder" is part of the system and they are CLOSED UNDER
EFFICIENT CAUSE.
These causality arguments are also the best way to see that computer simulations
and other things called "artificial life" are at best a mimicry of a
few of the attributes of an organism.
I hope this helps, questions welcomed.
Don Mikulecky (http://views.vcu.edu/complex/)