Re: Models and ecosystem balance/change...

[John Kineman <***>]

Everyone,
I'm wondering if "organizationi" isn't too vague a concept to allow a 
discussion of its entailments. What do we mean by organization? The way 
something is put together, or the purpose for which it is put together? 
Also, there are many ways to describe how and why something is 
organized. It seems to me that any concept of organization is dependent 
on some other system for which or in which it serves a function or 
purpose. Then the function or purpose in that larger system defines the 
"organization" for that relationship, and there may be multiple 
super-systems in which there are various functions and thus various ways 
of understanding the organization. So, I'm thinking that organization 
should not be thought of in terms of our mechanical notions of, say "how 
something is put together" but in purely relational terms, in which case 
the relationship must be specified before imagining the organization.

For example, the organization of a rabbit is certainly related to its 
property of  life. But that organization is actually a relationship to 
many larger systems. The system of rabbit evolution and phylogeny 
through time. Its present-day ecology. Perhaps to a much broader "rabbit 
consciousness" if there is such a thing, and all of life on Earth. The 
rabbit is "organized" within all these contexts and I think they are 
necessary to any description of the organization of the rabbit, given 
that we are not just talking about the placement of parts. So I'm 
thinking that organization really has a lot to do with the notion of 
function. Does this make sense?

John

Tim Gwinn wrote:

> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: ROSEN Forum [mailto:*** Behalf Of Steve
> > Johnson
> > Sent: Friday, December 10, 2004 10:35 PM
> > To: ***
> > Subject: Re: Models and ecosystem balance/change...
> >
> >
> > Tim Gwinn:
> >
> > The genome does not generally possess an entailment
> > structure that would be congruent with the
> > entailment structure of the organization(s) produced
> > as a result of that genome.
> >
> >
> > Steve Johnson:
> >
> > So what entails the organization? The genome + the
> > environment?
> >    
>
> I think at the least, the genome, the environment, the current organization
> of the system, the properties of the matter in the system, would all
> contribute to the eventual organization produced.
>
> Regards,
> Tim
>