|
I promised to address John M.'s question about whether the
definitions of system constraints as either holonomic or non-holonomic
reinforces the model-based view of reality.
The answer, in my opinion, is "Yes". I don't see that as a
negative unless we make it into one. I'm willing to take my father's word for it
that science is, in large part, about modeling in one way or
another. Models can either expand one's vision or shrink it down,
depending on how it's done. Reductionist models tend to shrink our perspective
of any given system and Relational models expand our perspective. Both
types are useful if applied appropriately. Models (even relational
models) may be a reduced version of whatever system they model, but are a
natural mode of interaction in a relational universe.
Here's the reasoning:
1.) The way all organisms interact with the universe, according to
the work in "Anticipatory Systems", is through models generated from
within. The "internal predictive model" includes modeled aspects of self,
modeled aspects of environment, and modeled aspects of time. It also
includes modeled aspects of the interactions induced by the organization of all
these things together.
2.) I think Science is model-based because the human mind is
model-based.
3.) The fact that there are two opposing definitions regarding
context dependence creates a language model of the idea that demonstrates,
among other things, one of the main features of complexity: It is not
reducible and non-computable.
Judith
|