----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, August 21, 2004 8:06
AM
Subject: The difference between "Causal"
and "Impredicative" loops, etc.
One of the areas of confusion I'm seeing in many different
settings, including the ISSS conference I attended in July, is caused by a
difference my father specified in his use of the phrases "Causal loops" and
"Impredicative loops". The ideas are connected because they both describe
chains of entailment, which is why it gets confusing, but "Causal loops" exist
in natural complex systems whereas "Impredicative loops" exist in formalisms
(i.e., models).
(SKIP)
Judit
---------------------
Does that mean that "Causal loops" as I guess, - the unlimited
term for natural systems (unlimited) - are IMPREDICATIVE, while the
"Impredicative loops" as designated to limited models - are called
impredicative, because only those are registered which are within the
model-boundaries? Did RR want to draw the attention to the incompleteness of
the named select causality of the models by pointing out that - indded -
they are impredicative (unlimited)?
During the past years I drew appreciation from Rosen-friendly
minds several times (and lists) when explaining that "a cause" is a reduced model view,
where the total interconnectedness and its unlimited source-effects are cut
off in favor of the selected ONE - pointed out by the appropriate model-view.
In this sense the real sense of 'impredicativity' SHOULD apply to
formalism.
John M